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[PTTG??]

I was under the impression that all that voter info was more or less public data anyway. And I don't even mean "already leaked" but "generally accessible for anyone if you can maneuver the various systems local governments hold them under." I'd not be surprised if that 10% that didn't get affected were from areas where that info isn't publicly available and thus not easily included in a massive database.

It's not openly collated into this sort of easily-identifiable method, though.

[sluissa]

I was under the impression that all that voter info was more or less public data anyway. And I don't even mean "already leaked" but "generally accessible for anyone if you can maneuver the various systems local governments hold them under." I'd not be surprised if that 10% that didn't get affected were from areas where that info isn't publicly available and thus not easily included in a massive database.

It's not openly collated into this sort of easily-identifiable method, though.

Depends on the location. Quick search reveals that Louisiana will just flat out sell you a PDF with all that info and more for a penny a person. ("Not to exceed $5000", not sure if that means extra are free or 500k is the max per order.) Orange County, California seems to sell the info through a website as well, although pricing and details aren't as obvious.

So yeah, publicly available, although granted it'd cost you a lot of time and money to get a full database like that.

[Frumple]

Pretty sure it was just registered voter stuff, i.e. no immigrants allowed, get out of our released to the wild personal information club. Also mentioned it before the rest of you *shakes fist*

I'm just going to content myself knowing the question of which party has the more shit IT has, for the time being, been settled.

... though as to ease of access for registered voter info. As with basically everything election related, iirc it varies by state, anywhere from easy to ]get out[. Also relatively sure most of the time getting them also gets record of you put on the books as doing so, which mitigates abuse a little. Somethin' like that, chunk of the problem about it is now not a single anybody knows who or who doesn't have it. Regardless of how easy access was before, it was still a failure and a half and a rather not!good thing.

[Lord Shonus]

In other news, the Spreme Court has agreed to hear Gill v. Whitford, a legal challenge to gerrymandering.
http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/06/todays-orders-court-tackle-partisan-gerrymandering/

[alway]

Pretty sure it was just registered voter stuff, i.e. no immigrants allowed, get out of our released to the wild personal information club. Also mentioned it before the rest of you *shakes fist*

I'm just going to content myself knowing the question of which party has the more shit IT has, for the time being, been settled.

... though as to ease of access for registered voter info. As with basically everything election related, iirc it varies by state, anywhere from easy to ]get out[. Also relatively sure most of the time getting them also gets record of you put on the books as doing so, which mitigates abuse a little. Somethin' like that, chunk of the problem about it is now not a single anybody knows who or who doesn't have it. Regardless of how easy access was before, it was still a failure and a half and a rather not!good thing.

If you're rich, you could just buy it anyway. So to all intents, it was public before to anyone with the resources to use it for anything nefarious. Corporate data collection is entirely self-regulated.

Which is quite fun when you consider Peter Thiel's company Palantir exists, what it does, and what his various goals are.

[RedKing]

And that he named it for an all-seeing orb that served as a tool of corruption.

[Strife26]

And that he named it for an all-seeing orb that served as a tool of corruption.

Palantir specifically and data mining in general are probably the creepiest results of the modern age. I like knowing if I'm pregnant before anyone else, thank you very much.

[Frumple]

Eh... it's a helluva' tool. Just... easily abused. And to all appearances being pushed hardest by commercial interests, which, uh. Have certain incentives to do so. Real obvious it was coming, though. That kind of data collection and analysis is the logical extension of attempts to better understand sociology and psychology. We just kinda' need to step up our game for using it for good.

[Strife26]

Eh... it's a helluva' tool. Just... easily abused. And to all appearances being pushed hardest by commercial interests, which, uh. Have certain incentives to do so. Real obvious it was coming, though. That kind of data collection and analysis is the logical extension of attempts to better understand sociology and psychology. We just kinda' need to step up our game for using it for good.

Used by who for what definition of good?

[sluissa]

I can imagine some interesting research done with vast amounts of personal info. Might also be useful in various city planning aspects and as relatively solid data for estimating the effect of legislation on a population. But of course nobody is going to use it for any of those things without bending it to say what they want. (except maybe the researchers, but who ever listens to scientists?)

[Frumple]

That, more or less, yes. Movement patterns, changes in purchasing habits, all those sorts of things, can be used to track and predict or prevent all sorts of shit that would be really nice to the track and prevent. Like, that's the kind of data and analysis a seriously on the ball economists runs with for a decade or three and then starts near inerringly identifying market bubbles while they're forming instead of when they're about to pop, how a city planner/administrator notices part of the area they're working with is gentrifying, or starting to show signs of particular sorts of infrastructure wear or seeing spikes in certain sorts of malfeasance, how a disease or pandemic related critter can identify warning signs for something sketchy encroaching or herd immunity weakening or whatever, and so on, and so forth.

The data itself and the ability to track and analyse it as it changes is really damn good stuff for dealing with wide scale/macro concerns. Just need to start using it for that more instead of thumb sitting as corporate jackasses use it to shill robocalls.

[EnigmaticHat]

In other news, the Spreme Court has agreed to hear Gill v. Whitford, a legal challenge to gerrymandering.
http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/06/todays-orders-court-tackle-partisan-gerrymandering/

That's some good news.

Its interesting that they specified partisan gerrymandering.  Bipartisan gerrymandering is a thing as well, both sides arranging the districts so everyone gets a safe seat.  I guess trying to tackle both those at once would be optimistic.

[Reelya]

Ironically, if gerrymandering was mandatory and carried out to it's logical extreme, it would in fact be proportional representation.

Bipartisan gerrymandering is a thing as well

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" is a truism. If you have a safe seat as a Democrat then your bigger rival is in fact another Democrat eyeing your seat, not the Republican who has the safe seat next to yours. So that way you get some unlikely alliances and common enemies.

[Powder Miner]

Eh... it's a helluva' tool. Just... easily abused. And to all appearances being pushed hardest by commercial interests, which, uh. Have certain incentives to do so. Real obvious it was coming, though. That kind of data collection and analysis is the logical extension of attempts to better understand sociology and psychology. We just kinda' need to step up our game for using it for good.

I take it as a general rule that if a tool is given which can be abused, it will be.

[Sheb]

In other news, the Spreme Court has agreed to hear Gill v. Whitford, a legal challenge to gerrymandering.
http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/06/todays-orders-court-tackle-partisan-gerrymandering/

That's some good news.

Its interesting that they specified partisan gerrymandering.  Bipartisan gerrymandering is a thing as well, both sides arranging the districts so everyone gets a safe seat.  I guess trying to tackle both those at once would be optimistic.

Well, gerrymandering to disaffrenchise people based on race is already illegal, which led to those hilarious interviews with NC politicians saying "Listen, we're totally not doing that to make the black vote irrelevent, we only base ourselves on political data to make the democrat vote irrelevent". So hey, progress.