est. 2007

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DLP Accused of Using ‘Firewater’ Program to Sniff Voters List

The following was received from an anonymous person. The BU blogmaster will let this play and follow where it leads, for the moment – David, Blogmaster I thought I would let you and the readers on BU, know about one of the Barbados Election Programmes used by the DLP to learn about voters in Barbados.…

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The following was received from an anonymous person. The BU blogmaster will let this play and follow where it leads, for the moment – David, Blogmaster

I thought I would let you and the readers on BU, know about one of the Barbados Election Programmes used by the DLP to learn about voters in Barbados. It is called “firewater” and trust me when I say that no one in the DLP wants you to know about this because it has aided them in the past, and because no one in bim can handle the truth about what goes on around election time! How do they know what they know about you during election time?

Firewater came into light during the last 2013 election. It is a programme used to show the voters list and display information about all who are registered to vote in Barbados. In its most basic form, it is a database, with entries pertaining to ALL registered voters in Barbados. Information can be accessed from the database at any time without any clearance or authorization, and because we are talking about voters, access to information about the who’s who of Barbados is granted.

When was the last time you heard about firewater in the news?

You have probably never heard about firewater before because it has never been mentioned once by any member of the DLP because they do not want the public to be aware of what they have been doing with your information! With this programme everyone in Barbados is vulnerable! Firewater can access everything about a person such as National registration number, permanent address and polling district. It has information about every single person who is registered to vote in Barbados so that means even you. I am not aware of any laws regarding the use of information in such a programme outside of the Electoral and Boundaries Commission office(s) but I thought you would like to know.

Firewater is a programme that only the DLP has access to. I am doubtful that the other parties in Barbados have this kind of tool at their disposal. Anyone who is registered to vote can be found by name search, so it is very easy to find someone who is listed as a registered voter. That means anyone 18 years or older at the time of the last election. The database can pull up any one of the 380,000 names listed. No one in the DLP wants you to know about firewater so here is a perfect example of why no freedom of information legislation has been passed.

I have attached some photos of firewater in action. As you can see the database is quite extensive. Firewater was used in the last election in 2013 so I cannot tell you if it will be used again this time around. Firewater is only one of many ‘Barbados Electoral Programmes’ used by the DLP. Most likely, there will be some improvements to these  tools in the upcoming elections as the DLP also controls the government.

I don’t know what else to tell you about firewater other than the fact that this programme exists. Again, this could be one of those issues that borders on the line of legality or it could be completely illegal for the DLP to have compiled the voters’ information in such a manner. I guess it is a question of WHO has access to the database and WHO can use it for what purpose?! I want to caution who and every Barbadian that this is a very comprehensive list with access to your friends, and family’s information. It can be used by persons anyone, and on any computer outside the Barbados Electoral and Boundaries Commission office(s).

144 responses to “DLP Accused of Using ‘Firewater’ Program to Sniff Voters List”

  1. Observig Avatar
    Observig

    @awty and others
    Level 1. data has no power
    Level 2. information has some power
    Level 3. the ability to analyse information leads to potential power
    Level 4. shaping perceptions and mindsets based on analysis is where the real power lies

    This database at best is a level 3 scenario, if persons with the insights and understanding use it as such. At worse it is a level 2. Level 4 is the level of SCL and Cambridge where personal information (not just electoral) is gathered, analysed and manipulated to generate strategies, marketing and persuasive tools. No different than the process to make a Coke advertising campaign better than Pepsi.

    At the local level, some of this information is already sitting on the Facebook pages of both BLP and DLP (and subsidiary pages).

    Without going to deep, a good “analysis” can start the process of cross-referencing “likes” and “insights” and garner where the strengths and weaknesses are and best places to target. The internet has made us connected, but it has also made us vulnerable. Freedom, democracy and openness will always have a back door that can be exploited by those who wish to do so.

    Observing

    P.S. I am certain that David already knows the “user profiles” of us bloggers. Thank God he believes in the cause that lacks assistance, the wrong that needs resistance, the future in the distance, and the good that he can do.

  2. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Have Bajans ever heard of identity theft?

  3. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ The Honourable Blogmaster

    Yes the IDs do have pictures and since the facilitation of which De ole man speaks is Barbados ID falsification then we do have a problem

    Polling stations open at 6 a.m. and close at 6 p.m.

    According to a much more valid internet source de ole man would wish to share this procedure for the active consideration of readers

    The procedure(s) follow(s)

    “ In the polling station voters are directed to the presiding officer or polling clerk, who asks the voter his or her name, [REQUESTS TO SEE THEIR VALID ID – de ole man’s insertion] checks that it is on the register, and places a mark against the register entry.

    This records that the voter has received a ballot paper but does not show which one.

    The officer or clerk gives the ballot paper an official mark before handing the paper to the voter. The official mark is intended to show that the papers placed in the ballot box are genuine.”

    Now, to any reviewer of this process, the reasonable question is “ what is the process of authenticating the ID OF THE ELIGIBLE VOTER IN THE POLLING STATION?”

    And therein lies the weakness of the system.

    If an “authentic ID” is presented to a polling clerk who has specifically been chosen because the representative of the political party is unable to effect a visual reconciliation of that “authentic ID”, then there is no discrepancy as per that ID

    1000 IDs of 1,000 eligible voters from the Diaspora who the DLP Chief of Immigration confirms are no ON ISLAND PRIOR TO ELECTION DAY, flowing into the election centers over the 720 minutes that they can vote ACROSS 500 buildings WELL I HAVE TO SAY “ HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM…”

  4. David Avatar
    David

    @PUDRYR

    To discuss validating a vote based on he presentation of a National ID which is a piece of plastic sealed by a heat machine seems to be a nonsense.

  5. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    I am unsure of your last post Honourable Blogmaster

    I am unsure if you said and verily meant “to discuss validating a vote….is nonsense” or “validating a vote based on ID being nonsense…”

    Since you did in fact write the former I will err to believe that what you have written you have written.

    So how is it nonsense to write about such a blatant flaw in the bajan election process.

    Indeed if you are in fact stating that then the very kaleidoscope of blogs which attended the former BU design which highlighted Any of the instances where the Honourable Fumbles and others of his delinquent languishing party spoke to such false IDs discoveries, is it that you are saying that such assertions to be nonsense as well?

    Surely I am misunderstanding your statement…

  6. David Avatar
    David

    @PUDYR

    Your translation is always on the side of literal. The comment is meant to convey that a Barbados ID that is put together with a heat machine searing plastic makes a mockery of the voting setup.

  7. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    Forgive de ole man Honourable Blogmaster

    It is an anally retentive mind that concatenates your words in that specific sequence and arrived at that subtle difference in interpretation

    I have to be exact with things in my line of work and therefore have challenges with these sentences that have a dual interpretation

    I have come to realise that the powers that be like um so because it serves their interest to have these inefficiencies to abuse when it suits their purposes

  8. David Avatar
    David

    The TT AG has decided for what it is worth to investigate this company. No such luck with the group we have here. The AG cannot even confirm if a former AG is qualified to practice law in Barbados. By the way, didn’t the DLP pass a resolution to ask the AG to rule on this matter?

    https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Trinidad-and-Tobago-Government-to-Review-Cambridge-Analyticas-Role-in-Elections-Spying-on-Citizens-Internet-Activity-20180329-0013.html

  9. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @pieceuhderockyeahright April 2, 2018 10:32 AM “If Fumbles Stuart AND MIAMI VICE JOHNSON are able to have their plan to permit Barbadians from the Diaspora Vote then he would have won the game.”

    Bajans in the diaspora should not be permitted to vote because just as there should be no taxation without representation, they should be no voting for representatives by those who pay little or no tax in Barbados, and who in addition do not have to live with the results of their vote.

    Bajans in the diaspora must do the ethical thing and not vote in Barbados’ elections.

  10. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Hal Austin April 2, 2018 3:50 AM “Do you understand the meaning of citizenship?”

    Yes I do.

    But since you clearly believe that there is something which I do not understand…

    What is it that you believe that I need to learn?

  11. David Avatar
    David

    Just read the following on William Duguid’s Facebook page:

    William Duguid You can vote even if you do not have an I.d card as a copy of everyone’s card with photo is held at the station.

  12. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @de pedantic Dribbler April 2, 2018 10:01 AM “Well, it could…those folks for example who buy religious books and are so identified from their Magna loyalty might be targetted with anti lesbian ads…so yeah!”

    So who tell you that being a lesbian, homosexual transsexual, bisexual, transgenger, intersexual, or two spirited means that a person is not also a devout church goer who buys religious books.

    Certainly in my Christian church there are a good number of homosexual and bi-sexual people, who have been for their whole lives devout members of the congregation. The church can’t open without them.

    So being LBGTI2 and being a devout Christian are not mutually exclusive.

  13. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @pieceuhderockyeahright April 2, 2018 2:47 PM “That’s 16,000 false IDs to assist a DLP reinstatement.”

    So you are telling me that there are 16,000 Bajans willing to sell their vote?

  14. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    I’ve worked as a polling clerk multiple times here and away and each time and in each place picture identification was carefully checked, by looking at the ID, looking at the real-real face, then looking at the ID again.

  15. nineofnine Avatar
    nineofnine

    Good evening.
    Not sure if the procedure is legal, but last time I voted, the Ballot came from a book with a stub, the ID# was written on both ballot and stub….is this the mark PUDRYR alluded to?… “certainly a determination can be made of who voted for who.

    On the subject of validation, can additional current “proof of address” by way of a bill, job letter, or some legitimate correspondence be requested and lodged by contesting parties and individuals and a photo taken at the receipt of the ballot?…certainly that will have to be on the statue books.

    Sad, that a simply case of integrity and transparency must find ways and means to thwart corruption.

  16. Pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    Pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ Dr Simple Simon,

    …and the $64k question after the examination of the ID that is thusly presented AND EXAMINED as you described , when the ID has been falsified at source, AS WITH THE BARBADOS PASSPORTS THAT GOT THE FORMER HEAD OF IMMIGRATION KILLED AT HIS HOME IN BUTLERS AVE RATHER UPPER SYNDICATE ROAD IN SPOONERS HILL, what happened then?

    As to your question as to whether 16,000 Bajans would sell their vote I would answer why?

    Why do I need to hire 16,000 Bajans when I can hire 4,000 of wunna hungry economically disadvantaged peeples and print each of wunna four different identities…and give wunna §§§ to clean the indelible ink off wunna index finger heheheheh

    @ nine of nine

    The internet narrative was not explicit about the mark and as per your step of the marking of the voters ID on the ballot and stub that is a valid step which they did not record

    @ The Honourable Blogmaster.

    One may have to confirm Duguids message cause a feller tell me dat he very wrong and if you ent got your ticket, in this case your ID you ent got a chance TO VOTE

  17. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Simple Simon April 2, 2018 8:20 PM

    What is it that you believe that I need to learn?(Quote)

    What citizenship means.

  18. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/cambridge-analyticas-work-in-the-caribbean-was-pretty-shady.html

  19. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    PLC,

    Is there a link between any latest IT work done in BB and CA?

  20. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Nineofnine
    Not sure if the procedure is legal, but last time I voted, the Ballot came from a book with a stub, the ID# was written on both ballot and stub….is this the mark PUDRYR alluded to?… “certainly a determination can be made of who voted for who.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    For ten years now Bushie has been raising this issue on BU, and, led by David(BU), they have been dismissing it as trivial. Now everyone is on about a simple use of a database that can only influence idiots anyhow.

    What the situation that you highlight does, is allow the Government to put together a database of who voted for them, who voted against them, and who did not vote.
    This can then be used to decide who is appoint to Boards, who is promoted, who gets sidelined, and who get big contracts.
    The fundamental problem that has wrecked Barbados is that of INCOMPETENCE … which came from partisan political appointments RATHER than merit based appointments having been the order of the day.

    If it was NOT KNOWN how people voted, it would have been be MUCH MORE DIFFICULT to F*** up the whole country in such a short time as Froon and Stinkliar has done….

  21. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Bushie

    Yours is too simplistic.

    On the inside, there are people you get contracts, are protected, knowing that they will never vote in certain ways. Familial connections and the like.

    These to us are more portentous that the generalized narrative.

  22. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    The fundamental problem that has wrecked Barbados is that of INCOMPETENCE … (Quote)

    Thank Heavens that at least one person, even if anonymously, has realised what is the Bajan disease. Not corruption, but incompetence. This is an epidemic that runs right through the entire society.

  23. Peter Lawrence Thompson Avatar
    Peter Lawrence Thompson

    @Bush Tea & Hal
    You are completely correct about incompetence being a fundamental problem that is wrecking Barbados. We need to fix the corruption as well because if the powers that be became competent while still being corrupt they would be much more effective at stealing.

  24. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Ethical behaviour is part of competence. Insecurity encourages corruption. Most people do not set out to be corrupt.

  25. Well, Well Avatar
    Well, Well

    The nastiest of corruption, corrupt government ministers and politicians accepting campaign finance from white criminals, corrupt white criminals posing as wealthy business people, no wonder so much land gets stolen and ministers can do nothing but stay corrupt through each 5 year term.

    “(among other unsavory things) to sway a Sri Lankan election by having “someone posing as a wealthy developer come in” to “offer a large amount of money to the candidate to finance his campaign in exchange for land,” his purported dirty tricks may have struck some as so devious-sounding as to be unbelievable. Perhaps, as the company at the center of Facebook’s ongoing privacy controversy claimed after Britain’s Channel 4 released the video, Nix was just playing along with a potential client. That’s a convenient explanation for the company, but it ignores one thing: The tactics Nix described aren’t so different from the kind of things that Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, SCL Group, has reportedly used in the past. Its purported activities in the Caribbean over the past decade or so might be particularly instructive.”

  26. David Avatar
    David

    Thanks for your erudite intervention Peter. Not sure why some will seek to diagnose the problem to a single issue.

  27. Well, Well Avatar
    Well, Well

    All am asking, and it seems I have been asking for days…who besides the DLP government is counting millions of dollars in LOSSES after paying SCL/SLC what’s the difference, UPFRONT….to interfere in the 2018 election in Barbados..lol

    is that too much to ask….ah want to know, ah go find out and when I do it will be blasted across the world, yall trying to keep me in the dark and I will have none of it, I tell you.

  28. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    Someone from Indar Weir team call my home number to ask for support. How they get my info?

  29. Well, Well Avatar
    Well, Well

    Besides Fruendeidiot could have called elections early just as other countries did, but no, he wants to make history, well lets see here, that history is going like this….ya already paid SCL/SLC UPFRONT to come up with a big scam….like 6-8 months ago…….brings to mind the old lady on the side of the bus who got tricked in 2013 just like the electorate with SCL/SLC at work…did not see it myself, but ah heard, ask Piece…..that was Phase 1.

    Phase 2 is taking campaign finance money, millions of dollars worth from some white foreign crook(s) posing as a wealthy business man in exchange for land or they controlling the sale of Cajan passports to white people scam, and a bet these retarded ministers dont know and could care less who is really behind that money and is running that scam from thousands of miles away….true licorish, hand to mouth house negros…so let’s presume ministers already got the campaign finance money….and WILL LOSE THE ELECTION.

    Phase 3…making history..lol

    remember how confident yardfowls were on here, they were cussing everybody on the blog everyday, they are all now very silent like they never existed, ah hope they got sold for the people’s millions in campaign finance cause the whole shit went sideways.

  30. Well, Well Avatar
    Well, Well

    What is particularly bad, the citizens need land to plant food, but the ignoramuses for ministers and politicians grudgingly keep the land in a bank growing cow itch and bush, just waiting for some white man in a shirt and tie or some monkey suit to enter and bribe them to give away the land for very little or nothing, land that can go to the people as I said months ago when some cretin was on here trying to convince us why government should control the land, like the crook that he is, the people should control the land..

    well, let’s hope there are a lot more politicians, ministers and their yard fowls ..in Barbados and across the Caribbean on tape just like Grant from St. Kitts, selling out people and country for very little…what a thing..lol

  31. Well, Well Avatar
    Well, Well

    https://youtu.be/priAMe10C9Q

  32. Roverp Avatar
    Roverp

    Not even the use of FIREWATER can save the DEMS!

  33. Roverp Avatar
    Roverp

    Solutions Barbados and the DEMS think the BLP foolish. Call the elections and you will hear the BLP ideas for bringing Barbados out of this DLP created mess.

  34. Roverp Avatar
    Roverp

    How come Solutions Barbados and the DEMS want the BLP to come with ideas so desperately? Is it that they waiting to twist the BLP ideas and deceive BARBADIANS as usual?

  35. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    @Roverp

    Are you listening to these humbugs on VOB?

    I had to laugh at Kim Tudor………why did she get involved in politics at this stage……….she is saying that the BLP need to stop calling for the election and bring solutions.

    Does she know that the people of Barbados are without representation? March 6 has gone and the DLP no longer has a mandate from the people of Barbados to govern them.

    Never again should this country be held to ransom by a wicked leader.

  36. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    Right, Colin….ignore this humbug Grenville and deal with the issues.

    I cant wait for this election so that I no longer have to hear from these humbugs. As soon as he opens his mouth, he is attacking the BLP as if the BLP is the government……….SMH.

    He supposedly has a beef with the BLP but the person that has caused him stress and grief is no longer in this party……..deal with the individual not MAM.

    Not one seat for Grenville………that will shut him up.

  37. Tell me Why Avatar
    Tell me Why

    This is directed to Ms. Tudor and Paul and Grenville of Solutions candidate who feel that the rush for elections is not urgent and the opposition party should concentrate on letting the electorate know what the party plan to do. Ideas have been constantly mooted by UPP, Solutions and BLP with its draft manifesto. So what is the problem – should a Performa Manifesto with details be submitted? Elections should have been called unless the house is in disarray. This is not about being lawful….it is the behaviour of being lawless.

  38. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Wendell Callendar needs to stop!! Just shouting, rhetoric and hot air. A man that is now associated with the 4th or 5th political party and calling for change…lmao.

  39. Well, Well Avatar
    Well, Well

    That sell out Grant did not even do the math, he just heard 1.5 million US in his personal account and his head started to spin, he only recovered long enough to ask for 1.7 million US…peanuts for 200 ACRES of prime property…he was giving away everything, lock stock and island…the white man was No.1 with a surety, the very same thing the desperate house negros do in parliament…the majority population don’t stand a chance with these black judases.

  40. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    “Someone from Indar Weir team call my home number to ask for support. How they get my info?”

    @ Kevin

    Perhaps Indar Weir and the DLP are sharing the firewater system.

  41. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Enuff

    I was impressed with the UPP until Lynette accepted the three humbugs…….David Gill, Maria Agard and Wendell Callender.

    Wendell Callender is a disgruntled humbug who seems to believe he has a right to be elected to parliament..

  42. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Pieceuhderockyeahright April 3, 2018 12:29 AM “give wunna §§§ to clean the indelible ink off wunna index finger heheheheh.”

    But, but, but… no indelible ink is placed on fingers, at least on none of the elections in which I have ever voted.

  43. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    As as for the indelible ink, people suggest everything from coconut oil, to hand sanitizer to washing the dishes.

    I don’t think that any of our boys on the block who are most likely to sell their vote engage in dish washing (what are mothers, grandmothers and girlfriends for?)

    So I would suggest that the polling clerks smell the hands of the electorate, especially the young male electorate and if they smell too clean…

  44. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Artax April 3, 2018 1:18 PM ““Someone from Indar Weir team call my home number to ask for support. How they get my info?”

    Perhaps like me you have been listed in the phone directory under the same name, number and address for 40 years or more?

    The parties always call me [too late] to ask whether I need a lift to the polling station. I always say no, because by the time they have called I have done voted already, done a full 8 hours day’s work, and cooked for my family.

    The political parties, all of them, are not very efficient.

    I try to vote before 6:15 in the morning on any giver election day, so I don’t now why they call at my place at 5 in the evening.

    Stupssseee!!!

    And beside I don’t want to take anything from any of the political parties…fellas arrogant and if you take their stuff pretty soon they start to act as though they own you, getting on disrespectful and ting.

  45. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Hal Austin April 3, 2018 1:34 AM “What citizenship means.”

    Ethical citizenship means that you do not vote in a country where you have for lived for 5, 10, 15, 20…40, 50 years.

    Ethical citizens understand that you do not vote in an election in which you do not have to live with the result of the election because you do not live in that place.

    Ethical citizenship means that you do not vote in an election in a place to which you have paid little or no taxes for 5, 10, 15, 20…40, 50 years..

    I don’t know where you learned your citizenship, but Ilearned mine from my father, who first voted in the 1951 election, but who did not vote in the 2003 election because as he carefully explained to each puzzled candidate who came .

    “I will be dead soon after this election, so I must not vote because I won’t live to experience the result of my vote, so it would be wrong to vote”

    He could not be persuaded to act unethically.

    That for me is ethical citizenship.

    i doubt very much that there is anything that you can teach me about ethical citizenship.

  46. Chris Halsall Avatar
    Chris Halsall

    David…

    You’ve heard of Cambridge Analytica. Correct?

  47. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Simple Simon April 3, 2018 2:15 PM

    I am not a teacher, no matter how ignorant the person may be. By the way, no matter how long you live outside the US, citizens must still pay their taxes. So payment of taxation equates with citizenship?
    How does that differ from nationality? Does place of birth have any importance? Does length of residence, whether citizen or not, entitles one to a vote? The US, Australia and many other nations (Guyana changed theirs years ago) give votes to citizens no matter where in the world they live. Does this matter? How about other resident Commonwealth citizens?

  48. David Avatar
    David

    Yes Chris, why?

  49. Chris Halzul Avatar
    Chris Halzul

    This is funny to watch.

    People anxious about a completely normal electoral roll while willingly leaving a breadcrumb trail of personal data all over soshal meeja. Tickles me

  50. Chris Halzul Avatar
    Chris Halzul

    If you’re using a product and it looks like it’s free, then you are the product.

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