https://www.dmv.org/public-records/
That it's used to confirm identity shows how weak identity-theft protections are at most institutions, not what's public information. (For that matter, mother's maiden name is basically public information as well: you can get it from genealogical records.)
Edit: spelling
Also, "reselling government data" implies that the government explicitly gave permission to a business selling your data. I doubt that's true. More likely, these entities gathered data from whatever entities they could, probably various private companies from which you've made online purchases.
There's no perfect identifier. That's why we need security. This is a major lapse.
Pretty sneaky of the comment above yours to try to pass dmv.org as a government website.
I've never "consented" to "releasing" my address publicly, but real estate records are public information thus the real estate I own is easily queried from my town's website and the real estate transaction was published in all the local newspapers. You can even look up my property tax bills from the towns website and my payment history of said taxes. If you're feeling generous you can also pay my property taxes online too.
Is the list of doctors you visit private? I could probably discover such information, but it is considered private.
Your address is usually public unless you go to lengths to obfuscate it. You can go to Hollywood and get a map of where all the movie stars live. And, the white pages list your phone number unless you opt out.
Birthday has never been publicly available until this voter data leak. Not good.
Yes, this is explicitly protected by law.
>I could probably discover such information
No you can't get this information, and certainly not legally.
>Your address is usually public
Exactly but I never "gave my consent to release my address," it just is.
>Birthday has never been publicly available until this voter data leak.
Open up a newspaper or open up yourlocalpaper.com There's a whole birth announcements section!
How do you think the RNC got this information in the first place? Public records. The RNC is NOT the government.
I imagine they used campaign dollars to buy the information from private companies with whom you've done business. Maybe legally, maybe not.
The RNC certainly isn't offering up such information as to where they sourced the data they leaked.
Too bad. The government doesn't care about you consenting to things. In fact, making you do things without your consent is literally the entire point of organized government, even if we usually overlook that because it's for a good purpose (for example, taxation to pay for health care or national defense).
I don't care if you think paying for health care or national security is important or not. That's an unrelated issue to whether or not Birthday is private or public data.
If it's true that that information is out in the wild now, then I expect government to tighten their tech security procedures.
How do you think the RNC got birthdays for 200 million Americans in the first place? Public records. 200 million Americans are NOT affiliated with the RNC.
As I replied elsewhere, there is a market for reselling your information on the internet. In some cases that is legal, and in many it's probably not. As a tech person you should know this.
The solution to all of this data privacy hysteria is to change our approach. The possession of common facts about a person should not be sufficient to masquerade as that person.
I think the solution is better security. We'll only ever have basic facts to uniquely identify people. Biometrics can be hacked/copied too.
> DMV.org is a privately owned website that is not owned or operated by any state government agency.
> "Note: Residence address and SSN are confidential except when the requester is authorized by law to receive it."
>Confidential information is not considered public record. This includes certain DMV personnel matters, physical/mental information, residence address, social security number (SSN), incomplete findings from research, results of ongoing investigations, operation plans, and electronic data security controls.
DOB is listed on ID and not considered confidential information.
Nowhere does it say that. If you think they mean that by omission, I highly doubt it.
You cited California DMV which does not give up that information. They won't even give you someone's address unless you're legally entitled, like the police.