Data Breach

We’ve been exposed!

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Privacy. We all want it. But, we’ve already seen that the GOP doesn’t believe we deserve it. After all, in late March, they demanded that the FCC rules on internet privacy be rescinded. (I say GOP because the legislation passed 215 to 205 in the House- with nary a Democratic Congressperson  agreeing with the bill that was sent to the President to sign into law. But, 15 Republicans didn’t agree with the bill and did vote no.)

But, it gets worse.

The last time I was a registered Republican (stop that snickering) was some 40 years ago. Back when there was such a thing as a liberal Republican. They’ve all died off- or were shooed out of the party.

Yet, I have just found out that the GOP feels it is entitled to keep data on every American voter. Thanks to Chris Vickery of Upguard, who has informed the world of this heinous data collection. This list includes our ethnicity, our religion, and our political opinions. It recorded our names, addresses, birth dates, phone numbers, opinions on Wall Street, Big Pharma,  the Afffordable Care Act, if we voted for Hillary or Bernie, and if we liked TheDonald. They maintained this data base including all that information- plus our purported positions on some 46 other issues (immigration, trade, etc.) all denoted in plain data format. No encoding.

Data Breach

A database that accumulated some 170 GB (gigabytes) of data. (The data maintained by Deep Root is 1.1 Terabytes or 1100 GB; but that entire collection may- or may not have been also exposed.) But, even using the 170 GM figure, that means about 100 MB (megabytes) on each and every registered voter in America. (Check our your computer to see how much stuff that really is- a s..tload on each and every one of us.)

You can thank the GOP and its agent for keeping your data- data you never agreed it could keep, let alone collect- in an unprotected, clearly readable format (even to a seven year old). For all 198 million registered voters in the US.

And, their consultant (Deep Root Analytics) kept that data in such an insecure fashion that even  Target had more protection of their consumer’s data, when some 70 million folk’s information was breached. And, this GOP data was stored on Amazon Web Services, which has ubiquitous access (which these dorks made worse by storing it as plain data [this means it wasn’t an encoded database- just a collection of facts, without password protections).

But, Target only exposed its consumers, who at least did business with them. I- and most of you- have no interest in the GOP party system nor do I want them (nor am I giving permission to the Democratic Party) to have any of my information.

DeepRoot

Just so you know, Deep Root has its tentacles deep in the GOP- from Paul Ryan and his superPac, the Senate Leadership (sic) Fund, American Crossroads (a Koch front), to Mitch McConnell, among many others.

Now, I am not saying the Democrats don’t have such a list. Only that theirs wasn’t breached- even if such data exists.  (We already know that the Democrats have not been sophisticated with their data.  After all, the Russians have been sharing their eMails with the press for a while.)

And, I want every one of these political hacks and their organizations to request our permission to collect said data. And, to require them annually to request our permission to keep it.

I also  want them prosecuted for violating my privacy.
How I vote, when I vote- that’s data that the state and electoral commissions are entitled to keep (unfortunately). But, that right does not extend to any political party- without our express prior- and continued- permission.

And, no, I am not satisfied that these thieves didn’t have our social security information. Only in that would have made this breach of security worse. Except having our birth dates, addresses, and phone numbers means that they helped criminals garner enough information to hack each and every one of us.

Nor do I feel better that they idiots claim they have more security on the data now. It’s not theirs to have. Or for them to make it easier for the Russians to use.

Oh, yeah. Keep in mind that when Jeh johnson (the previous head of Homeland Security) designated election infrastructure as a critical component and therefore subject to heightened security requirements- he was referring to the data kept by the state and local authorities. Not political hacks.

Who clearly don’t give a damn about our security.Roy A. Ackerman, Ph.D., E.A.

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2 thoughts on “We’ve been exposed!”

  1. I’m truly done with both parties. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Democrats have done much the same thing – they just weren’t caught. And then there are the trolls and bots on social media who follow accounts just to see if they post political stuff. Wonder if that stuff is more grist for these mills.

    1. I agree that the Democratic party may be accumulating the same information. But, I don’t believe either party, a retail establishment, or a corporation has the right to collect and collate data about us without our prior (and continued) permission.

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