On December 28, 2015 news broke that millions of voter registration records had been leaked. Fortunately, the records have since been secured; however as of yet, no one has taken responsibility. Forbes reported the following:
Researcher Chris Vickery told FORBES he has his hands on all 300GB of voter data, which includes names, home addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, party affiliations, and logs of whether or not they had voted in primary or general elections. The data appears to date back to 2000. It does not contain financial data or social security numbers.
The fact that this kind of information is open to anyone might not alarm at first glance. Much of the data is publicly available across states as campaigners seek to home in on certain demographics. But some charge thousands of dollars for the pleasure. Many also place restrictions on the use of the information for commercial purposes.
The database has now been taken down. But thanks to someone’s carelessness, it was free to anyone who could find what Vickery did. That meant anyone in the world could have discovered where a person in the US lives and what political beliefs they may have. If they found the database, scammers and marketing folk alike will likely benefit most.
“Our society has never had to confront the idea of all these records, all in one place, being available to anyone in the entire world for any purpose instantly,” Vickery added. “That’s a hard pill to swallow. It crosses the line.”
To read the article in its entirety please click here.
