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Comment by mghfreud | Hacker News Reader

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.

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