Inside the Largest US Voter Data Leak
I have this theory that the only way regular people will start caring about privacy breaches such as this one is to use that data against them in a malicious way. Tell the average Joe that the data of all US voters has been leaked, &quot;Hmmm. That&#x27;s bad.&quot; and they move on with their lives as if nothing happened. Instead, if this data is used to impersonate the average Joe on social media or if it&#x27;s used to trick their mobile carrier into porting out their number, then they&#x27;ll take notice. (I am <i>not</i> suggesting people do this, it was just part of a thought experiment)<p>Unless the company involved is sued to bankruptcy and the people involved are prosecuted, sending a strong message to companies dealing with user data, nothing will change. But that&#x27;s unlikely to happen as this company is backed by the RNC.<p>While we&#x27;re on the topic of collecting personal data of people, there&#x27;s a simple solution : just don&#x27;t collect it unless it&#x27;s absolutely necessary. Stop asking me to broadcast my address in my newsletter. Stop asking me to submit my billing address when I make payments online. Stop asking me for my mobile number when I visit a fast food restaurant. Most of the companies that collect this data are not competent enough to keep it secure. The reason companies ask for an address to broadcast in users&#x27; newsletters is some anti-spam act which does not prevent the spammers from doing their job. I imagine it&#x27;s also a requirement for companies to collect a billing address for certain types of online payments. Change the law to remove these poorly thought out legislature.<p>More generally, we need regulations on how user data is used by companies. They should not be allowed to store user data indefinitely. If a user closes an account with a company, retain the data for a short period (eg- 1 year) and then delete the data automatically. Companies should not be allowed to build shadow profiles of users.