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I've been getting these spam text messages for a 2-3 years now for Democrats. However, they come to my phone at the name of one of my relatives. I think they si

by IncRnd 5y ago

I've been getting these spam text messages for a 2-3 years now for Democrats. However, they come to my phone at the name of one of my relatives. I think they simply cross-referenced names and phone numbers to determine who to spam. There are three items here, party affiliation, name of recipient, and target phone number. Only one of those apply to me, and one was wrong but related. This was data driven not from a signup of any sort.

sillysaurusx 5y ago
That’s very interesting. How do you know the data wasn’t from a signup of any sort? I wonder about that constantly — it seems like the #1 vector. And although I’ve been careful not to fill in phone number fields, I’d be lying if I said there were zero cases of me plugging in my number into “the wrong form”. It feels impossible to tell now which forms will bite you. And they’re always so insidious. Want to try out some new app that’s going viral? “Phone number verification please.” Oh good, now I have the choice of not joining my friends, or risking some spammer from India three years from now will be texting me at 3am to sell me silagra, because Hip New App had a data sharing agreement with Company X, who passed around my phone number like a pipe at a frat party. The worst part is that it’s somehow possible to detect whether you’re giving them a “real phone number” and not a twilio number. And it turns out that all those services that offer burner lines are all built on twilio. Which means (to my dismay) I couldn’t just set up a damn burner number unless I literally bought a second phone. At this point the situation is so comical that carrying around a burner phone next to my laptop is suddenly seeming like a rational totally-normal thing to do.
- dvtrn 5y ago
  At this point the situation is so comical that carrying around a burner phone next to my laptop is suddenly seeming like a rational totally-normal thing to do. Heh…as soon as I read this I glanced down at the little Nokia dumb phone I have next to my keyboard. $15/mo AT&T 4G prepaid plan exclusively for “when I’m suspicious of whoever I’m about to give a phone number to”. Only ever gets “topped up” when I need to use it, and when it’s not in use it just sits in a drawer.
- specialist 5y ago
  IIRC, voter databases NGP VAN include phone numbers and emails. (IIRC, the big GOP one is called Voter Vault.) https://www.ngpvan.com/ https://www.ngpvan.com/ Parties maintain these datasets and then selectively share with candidates. There's always misuse and abuse. My local (legislative district) party requires candidates sign a contract. We're one of the few (because we have geeks on the executive board). And even then, there's always some yahoo abusing the data. I'm not aware of the relationship(s) state & national parties have with their large fund raisers. I assume the abuse is rampant. Just like with every other outsourced fund raising operation. -- I've long been totally against voter profiling and ballot chasing. Harassing voters is another form of disenfranchisement (thru alienation). I've door belled, worked the phones, and done fund raising; voters HATE us. But every else is utterly opposed to the alternative system. Universal voter registration, compulsory voting, and massively curtail campaigning. In other words, be like every other mature democracy. But we couldn't possibly have that. Because Murica! or something. TLDR: Burn it all down. Upgrade to genuine democracy.
nonameiguess 5y ago
This is particularly annoying. I was a fairly apathetic, dedicated non-voter for most of my adult life, avoiding anything political, didn't even register to vote, but once considered living with my grandmother for a brief while and uploaded a resume with her address to see what bites I could get from the local Las Vegas job market. 15 years later, I still get near daily texts during campaign seasons from some Trump-adjacent nonsense thinking I'm my grandmother because it associates my phone number with an address I never lived at, plus a bunch of calls from the 702 area code I never answer.

by IncRnd 5y ago

sillysaurusx 5y ago

That’s very interesting. How do you know the data wasn’t from a signup of any sort? I wonder about that constantly — it seems like the #1 vector. And although I’ve been careful not to fill in phone number fields, I’d be lying if I said there were zero cases of me plugging in my number into “the wrong form”. It feels impossible to tell now which forms will bite you. And they’re always so insidious. Want to try out some new app that’s going viral? “Phone number verification please.” Oh good, now I have the choice of not joining my friends, or risking some spammer from India three years from now will be texting me at 3am to sell me silagra, because Hip New App had a data sharing agreement with Company X, who passed around my phone number like a pipe at a frat party. The worst part is that it’s somehow possible to detect whether you’re giving them a “real phone number” and not a twilio number. And it turns out that all those services that offer burner lines are all built on twilio. Which means (to my dismay) I couldn’t just set up a damn burner number unless I literally bought a second phone. At this point the situation is so comical that carrying around a burner phone next to my laptop is suddenly seeming like a rational totally-normal thing to do.

dvtrn 5y ago
At this point the situation is so comical that carrying around a burner phone next to my laptop is suddenly seeming like a rational totally-normal thing to do. Heh…as soon as I read this I glanced down at the little Nokia dumb phone I have next to my keyboard. $15/mo AT&T 4G prepaid plan exclusively for “when I’m suspicious of whoever I’m about to give a phone number to”. Only ever gets “topped up” when I need to use it, and when it’s not in use it just sits in a drawer.
specialist 5y ago
IIRC, voter databases NGP VAN include phone numbers and emails. (IIRC, the big GOP one is called Voter Vault.) https://www.ngpvan.com/ https://www.ngpvan.com/ Parties maintain these datasets and then selectively share with candidates. There's always misuse and abuse. My local (legislative district) party requires candidates sign a contract. We're one of the few (because we have geeks on the executive board). And even then, there's always some yahoo abusing the data. I'm not aware of the relationship(s) state & national parties have with their large fund raisers. I assume the abuse is rampant. Just like with every other outsourced fund raising operation. -- I've long been totally against voter profiling and ballot chasing. Harassing voters is another form of disenfranchisement (thru alienation). I've door belled, worked the phones, and done fund raising; voters HATE us. But every else is utterly opposed to the alternative system. Universal voter registration, compulsory voting, and massively curtail campaigning. In other words, be like every other mature democracy. But we couldn't possibly have that. Because Murica! or something. TLDR: Burn it all down. Upgrade to genuine democracy.

nonameiguess 5y ago

This is particularly annoying. I was a fairly apathetic, dedicated non-voter for most of my adult life, avoiding anything political, didn't even register to vote, but once considered living with my grandmother for a brief while and uploaded a resume with her address to see what bites I could get from the local Las Vegas job market. 15 years later, I still get near daily texts during campaign seasons from some Trump-adjacent nonsense thinking I'm my grandmother because it associates my phone number with an address I never lived at, plus a bunch of calls from the 702 area code I never answer.