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Who people voted for is, but not really the other stuff. In my country, name, address and occupation on the electoral role are public-ish information that anybo

Who people voted for is, but not really the other stuff. In my country, name, address and occupation on the electoral role are public-ish information that anybody can look up in the local library. The law requires it to be made public, though also disallows any bulk copying of it, so theft of the whole database would still be a problem.

gus_massa 7y ago
Here in Argentina too. It even includes the equivalent of the SSN, that is public here. I guess all the political parties get one whole copy and the relevant pages are posted in the walls of the voting building, so you can check in which room you should vote (if you didn't check before in internet).
- tinus_hn 7y ago
  This is why in the Netherlands both private parties and the government are forbidden from using the ‘SSN’ for anything but a defined set of purposes. Your employer knows the number but can’t use it as your ID in their databases, your municipal authorities can’t link your garbage disposal pass to it.
  - gus_massa 7y ago
    Now the number is assigned chronologically when you register your newborn during the first week of life, so knowing the birth date, you can guess all but the last 3 or 4 digits. If used like a "secret", it is a 13 bits secret. Until a few years ago (10?) each city got a block of consecutive numbers and used it until it got exhausted, so with the birthplace it was easier to get a more smaller range even with an approximate birthdate. (Some cities used to continue the numeration after their block was exhausted, but these numbers where in the block of another city, so there is some duplication.) (And many years ago, the numeration for men and women was independent, because they had a different ID. When the ID were unified there was a lot of duplication.)
    - hyperman1 7y ago
      Same for Belgium. Your id is mostly birth date + 3 digits + a checksum. The 3 digits are half male half female. So 9 bits of randomness, and that's assuming all 500 combinations get used.
codedokode 7y ago
Why is the occupation recorded in the list?

gus_massa 7y ago

Here in Argentina too. It even includes the equivalent of the SSN, that is public here. I guess all the political parties get one whole copy and the relevant pages are posted in the walls of the voting building, so you can check in which room you should vote (if you didn't check before in internet).

tinus_hn 7y ago
This is why in the Netherlands both private parties and the government are forbidden from using the ‘SSN’ for anything but a defined set of purposes. Your employer knows the number but can’t use it as your ID in their databases, your municipal authorities can’t link your garbage disposal pass to it.
- gus_massa 7y ago
  Now the number is assigned chronologically when you register your newborn during the first week of life, so knowing the birth date, you can guess all but the last 3 or 4 digits. If used like a "secret", it is a 13 bits secret. Until a few years ago (10?) each city got a block of consecutive numbers and used it until it got exhausted, so with the birthplace it was easier to get a more smaller range even with an approximate birthdate. (Some cities used to continue the numeration after their block was exhausted, but these numbers where in the block of another city, so there is some duplication.) (And many years ago, the numeration for men and women was independent, because they had a different ID. When the ID were unified there was a lot of duplication.)
  - hyperman1 7y ago
    Same for Belgium. Your id is mostly birth date + 3 digits + a checksum. The 3 digits are half male half female. So 9 bits of randomness, and that's assuming all 500 combinations get used.

codedokode 7y ago

Why is the occupation recorded in the list?