191 million voters’ personal info exposed by misconfigured database (UPDATED)http://www.databreaches.net/191-million-voters-personal-info-exposed-by-misconfigured-database/

– Personal, public, and some non-public information on 191 million registered voters exposed
– Efforts to identify database’s owner to notify them unsuccessful
– Database still exposed

A misconfigured database leaking the personal information of over 191 million voters was reported to DataBreaches.net by researcher Chris Vickery. This report includes some of the results of an investigation by Vickery, DataBreaches.net, and Steve Ragan of Salted Hash.

UPDATE: As of earlier this evening, the database is no longer publicly available.

Earlier today, NationBuilder issued this statement.Backgrounder: What Data Are in a Voter’s List?Voter lists or databases may include a lot of information about you in addition to the information you are required to provide when you first register as a voter. They may contain your first and last name, your home and mailing addresses, your date of birth, gender, and ethnicity, the date you registered to vote, your telephone number, your party affiliation, your e-mail address if you provided one when you registered, your state voter ID, whether you’re a permanent absentee voter, and whether or not you’re on the Do Not Call list.Lists of voter registration information may be obtained from your state and then combined with other data sources by marketing firms or those serving as consultants to political parties or political campaigns.

Who can obtain the state’s voter list, and how it may be used depends on the state’s laws. So databases developed for political campaigns may also include whether or not you voted in the last general and primary elections, whether you appeared to follow a party line vote, and there may be a score predicting whether you’re likely to vote in an upcoming election or for a particular party or candidate. Databases developed for issue-oriented campaigns or non-profits doing fundraising may contain even more personal information such as your religious affiliation, whether you’re likely to be anti-abortion, whether you’re a gun owner, etc.

While the majority of states make their voter registration lists available as a matter of public record and do not restrict use, some states restrict use. For example, South Dakota requires the requestor of voter registration data to sign a statement:“In accordance with SDCL 12-4-41, I understand that the voter registration data obtained from the statewide voter registration database may not be used or sold for any commercial purpose and may not be placed for unrestricted access on the internet.

In California, information on voter registration cards is considered confidential, and subject to many restrictions to access and use. One of the restrictions is that the information may not be made available to persons outside the U.S. And in Hawaii, voter registration information may only be used for elections and by the government.But for the most part, not only can political organizations acquire information about you, they may be able to post it publicly, or even create an app with the information.Not surprisingly, the more complete the list or database, the more costly it may be. A database with information on all American voters, for example, might go for about $270,000, according to one marketing firm consulted by researcher Chris Vickery.