New Episode Alert EP144

Voter Privacy the the US Election

October 27, 2020

In episode 144 for October 26th 2020: Voter privacy and what you need to know about protecting your private information during the upcoming US election.

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Can you believe that the US election is next week? Well if you're like me, you're probably looking forward to getting this election over with since we're all being bombarded with political phone calls, texts, emails, and of course people coming to our front door trying to convince us to vote for their candidate. And all of this unwanted attention may make you wonder, how do these people and political parties get my personal information? Arn't voter records considered

? Well not really and it’s surprisingly easy to obtain voter records that can be used for political solicitation. 

. For example, in Minnesota, you can buy this information for $46, but in Iowa, it can cost up to $2,000 and in other states it can be completely free. Also, voter information is not the only type of information that's public by default. Campaigns, especially candidate campaign committees, are required to report information on donors to election authorities such as the

. Typically this information contains the person’s name, employer, job title, and city where the person lives. Under Federal Elections Commission regulations, federal presidential campaigns must identify donors who contribute more than $200.

Then there are the political data brokers selling your information to the political parties and of course online tracking that's used by the political campaigns. So if you happened to sign up for an email list on a political candidates website, everything from your IP address, location, email, and more can be harvested and potentially given to other campaigns. It should be no surprise that ads on Facebook and Instagram are targeting your specific interests and political affiliation, and guess where the data about your ad clicks, retweets, and shared links go? Right back to the political parties (or to whoever paid for those ads in the first place). It's also well known that political candidate websites use cookies, clear gifs, beacons, tracking pixels, or web bugs to ensure you are served political ads across all of your devices and social networks. For example, if you visit a presidential candidates website, don't be surprised if you start seeing ads for said candidate pop up on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter across all of your devices. And let's not forget about your smartphone which can be physically tracked as well. I've been seeing lots of stories and research showing that political parties

(yep, even in the pandemic) to track the unique hardware device identifier that your smartphone has to serve you more ads and to allow a political party to even know your physical location.

So with everyone's attention on next week's election, what can you do right now to help keep your private information, well at least a little more private? First, consider creating a separate or throw away email address for signing up for political email lists. Often times, these lists get shared with the greater political party, therefore allowing more political SPAM for years. Second, be mindful that under Federal Elections Commission regulations, federal campaigns must identify donors who contribute more than $200. But note that you can donate up to $100 in cash, and up to $50 anonymously. Third, be careful with any social media login like Facebook to register for campaign sites or apps. Even if you're OK sharing your personal information with a campaign, your friends may not be because you've also shared your friends list with that social network. And along those same lines, when browsing a political candidates website, consider using a VPN and using a privacy focused web browser like Firefox and browser plugins like the

. Forth, to prevent any type of wireless or Bluetooth tracking if you happen to attend a political rally or when you head to the polls to vote, turn off your smartphone (or at minimum turn off wireless and location services). Better yet and as a shameless plug for our sponsor, put your phone in a Silent Pocket faraday sleeve! And lastly, think twice before opening the door for a political canvasser bearing a tablet: not only might they be tailoring their message to match your online or device profile; your interaction will likely be documented for future elections.

Now here's my last and most important piece of advice: please exercise your right to vote on November 3rd and remember, democracy only works if we participate, and we can still participate without sacrificing our privacy.

Watch this episode on our YouTube Channel!

OctoberMonthly ShowEpisode 105In our October monthly show we finish our three part series on targeted attacks. In this episode we discuss the exploit and malware analysis with special guest Tyler Hudak, Incident Response Practice Lead at TrustedSec. Be sure to watch the YouTube edition of this episode to see a demo of several tools and techniques used in professional malware analysis!

Watch this episode on our YouTube Channel!

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