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Every time I try to search for a phone number (Bing/ddg) I get pages and pages of clearly auto generated fake names associated with numbers, all hosted on that same Turkish government portal. I don't know why.

Interesting, Are you sure it’s turkiye.gov.tr?

Not entirely sure, no. Happens on work PC using Chrome (with uBlock Origin and most lists activatsd), but not at all on phone using Firefox, despite identical searches just tested now. I don't know enough about how this works to say much more.

I get similar -- see my comment. But never gov.tr

Does anyone know the purpose served by those reverse phone number search sites that list hundreds of thousands of fake names and fake addresses?

The purpose is to serve ads and make money. They can do that because people will search for unknown numbers and names.

When these fake name/number sites first appeared about 5-8 years ago, they didn't have any ads or even outgoing links. (I looked without an ad blocker.) Ads might be the explanation for many of them today, but I don't think it's the original or sole reason. Though I suppose it may have begun as a proof of concept without ads to gauge the traffic, then ads got added years later.

I've read speculation that they were started by telephone spammers to poison the utility of those who-called-me websites that highlighted spammers' phone numbers. I don't think that's the real reason either. It sounds too cute and clever for spammers. (As an aside: nowadays those services are useless since spammers can so easily fake the caller-ID.)

I'm still thinking that there is an interesting story for the original purpose.

These are not on a goverment site, just the usual SEO spam.

Do the data shared with political parties contain real estate deeds?

I'm not sure what exactly it contains but all those leaks contain Name, Address and your national identity number(something like social security number). It must also contain the birthplace and date because the last elections there was question over how many refugees got citizenship and the opposition said they checked the birthplaces and the number is not too high.

BTW, this data is available for the citizens too during the election cycle so you can check who lives in the same building with you and correct any mistakes. The list of the electorate is also attached at the polls so anyone can check for something fishy.

Then in Turkey there's this obsession with companies about collecting as much as info possible about you, so when the food delivery service is hacked the hackers now can easily add your phone number, update your current address by matching your national identity number because for some reason they need to have that info to deliver some kebab.

Also, this national identity number is generated through some algorithm which gives away your relatives and thanks to this, the hackers can also build your social graph from the leaks. Here is a repo about that algo: https://github.com/kerematam/akrabatcno

AFAIK it’s used in “your grandson had an accident and needs emergency surgery, send this much money ASAP” scams.

> update your current address by matching your national identity number because for some reason they need to have that info to deliver some kebab

Publuc wifi at O2/millenium dome in london us almost as bad.

We really need to make extraneous data a liability and a risk burdain to business.

In the EU this is already the case. You are only allowed to collect what you need for a specific purpose.

> AFAIK it’s used in “your grandson had an accident and needs emergency surgery, send this much money ASAP” scams.

Sad to hear that that scam is also used in Turkey, some very low and despicable people also use it here, in Romania, targeting elderly people, and it’s really vile. I explicitly warned my parents not to fall for it in case someone calls them.

> this data is available for the citizens too during the election cycle so you can check who lives in the same building with you and correct any mistakes.

Why are they crowdsourcing a task that is a basic bureaucratic process in any state?

I mean, is Turkey a state that doesn't know who its citizens are and where they live?

It's primary function is to prevent election fraud. In Turkey, elections are a serious business with participation rate above 85% and people are meticulous about the process.

Also, in Turkey the address registration is self declaration based and the government doesn't actually check if you live there. So theoretically, it can be possible for a political party to arrange it's voters distribution in such a way that it is advantageous for them. The idea is that citizens should be able to check against such things.

I'm from Italy. When I change the place where I live I declare the new address and before they update my data an officer comes and checks that I really live there. They can get in and check that's not an empty house and I'm only pretending to live there, if they want to. The check is usually nothing more than peeking through the door though.

It seems an easy task to perform.

Wow that's creepy even for me, who lived for many years in Turkey. In Turkey, the only check is a reference from someone who is already registered in that address. All this can be done online, you declare your new address from turkiye.gov.tr and someone who's registered in that address can approve your declaration.

Do you know that in UK they don't even have such a registry? The government doesn't know where you live(at least officially) and when you need to apply for something that requires proof of address they would use bank statements on your name sent by mail to that address.

I wonder how do you feel about it? Do you think that the Italian approach is better? Why would the government has to know where you live for sure? Is it to prevent benefit frauds?

No idea, it's been like that since forever AFAIK. At least it solves a lot of problems (you just show your photo id) and basically everybody you have a contract with would know that information anyway, utilities, banks, etc.

Edit: there is a difference between the place you live and the place you are registered into. Example: a student is registered at parents' home and goes to study at a university in another city. He rents a room there. He has a contract there and the landlord must notify that the student lives there (since the terrorism laws in the 70s) but the student is still registered and votes at the city of his parents unless he registers at the other city.

This is common also for workers. Maybe they live for years in a city (and the state knows) but they are still registered on their home one.

In the UK we have the electoral register. In order to vote, you need to be registered to it. The government most definitely does use it, as do credit scoring agencies and identitity verification services.

A lot of places do accept bank statements as a backup if you are not on the electoral roll.

That sounds wildly inefficient.

They claim they have land registry records as well. Those are not part of the election database that was leaked eons ago.

Your comment is not accurate.

They claim things but the screenshots I've seen did not have any of those.

check this: https://eksisozluk1923.com/img/bei0vtuj

It's the usual stuff: id number, name, birthday, address, phone.

Then they have the "relatives", which is deductible from the id number.

Then you have some promotional materials advertising the sale of additional data but I have not seen anyone confirming it.

It is a bit premature to declare this leak "more of the same" because I am hearing people's medical records are out in this one. That would point to a new, probably wider leak.

That would be interesting, any links to reports about wider than the "usual" leaks?

Please read the article linked, they claim they have land registry records as well :/.

They claim things but the sources are not of good quality. The screenshots I've seen were the usual data: Name, address and phone number.

That might be because some interface(s) are supposed to show something like demo data when you enter an ID number. They want a membership for more. But this is speculation. I am sure we'll find out in a few days when it's already forgotten.

A few anectodal things from ekşisözlük claiming people were able to look up the medicines they are taking. Nothing conclusive and I didn't really have the chance to do a deep dive with my current bandwith. The files are supposed to be around 64GB.

Do you have a link to the files? I want to check this out.

Sorry no. I have to find it too. I can't do anything right now because I am on metered 4G.

"You can book appointments for documents services or hospitals, see all your medical history or even heritage records"

you must be crazy if you think this is a good idea

It’s very convenient, one of the perks of a totalitarian government with sound IT infrastructure.

I agree that it's very convenient and I use it myself too: much better than going into crowded offices with bureocracy etc.

On the other hand, in case of a breach/hack, it becomes a serious problem.

why do you think it is a bad idea?

Turkey has an universal healthcare system, government has to have all that info anyways. You have option to hide specific items from your medical history so not even your doctors can see them. Every access to your records by your doctors are also logged and reported.