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Data on 198M voters exposed by RNC contractor

NeverTrump

NeverTrump

Exposing GOP since 2015
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Well it wasn't long before the RNC got it huh? Somebody's getting fired:

A data analytics contractor employed by the Republican National Committee (RNC) left databases containing information on nearly 200 million potential voters exposed to the internet without security, allowing anyone who knew where to look to download it without a password.
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Data on 198M voters exposed by RNC contractor | TheHill
 
Carjosse said:
Sounds like voter intention information, so probably name, income, ethnicity, location. But we will have to wait and see.
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From the article

The accessible files, according to UpGuard, contain a main 198 million-entry database with names, addresses of voters and an "RNC ID" that can be used with other exposed files to research individuals.

For example, a 50-gigabyte file of "Post Elect 2016" information, last updated in mid-January, contained modeled data about a voter's likely positions on 46 different issues ranging from "how likely it is the individual voted for Obama in 2012, whether they agree with the Trump foreign policy of 'America First' and how likely they are to be concerned with auto manufacturing as an issue, among others."

Ooops.
 
These kind of information security errors happen from time to time, so I'm not terribly surprised or outraged by this... but I am surprised to learn their database is made up of almost two hundred million people.
 
Deuce said:
These kind of information security errors happen from time to time, so I'm not terribly surprised or outraged by this... but I am surprised to learn their database is made up of almost two hundred million people.
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That IS a pretty big number, isn't it? Who knew the RNC had so many supporters?
 
Mycroft said:
That IS a pretty big number, isn't it? Who knew the RNC had so many supporters?
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It wasn't a database of "RNC supporters." Sounds like they're trying to get info on every voting age citizen in the country.
 
Visbek said:
From the article

The accessible files, according to UpGuard, contain a main 198 million-entry database with names, addresses of voters and an "RNC ID" that can be used with other exposed files to research individuals.

For example, a 50-gigabyte file of "Post Elect 2016" information, last updated in mid-January, contained modeled data about a voter's likely positions on 46 different issues ranging from "how likely it is the individual voted for Obama in 2012, whether they agree with the Trump foreign policy of 'America First' and how likely they are to be concerned with auto manufacturing as an issue, among others."

Ooops.
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Exactly I have no idea how you would model that kind of stuff without income, age, ethnicity, location, etc.
 
Mycroft said:
That IS a pretty big number, isn't it? Who knew the RNC had so many supporters?
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It is data modelling information. If it was a supporter database that would mean 2/3 of the total population are Republicans.
 
These guys were Russian, right?
 
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