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Jeb Bush Publishes Thousands of Citizens' Email Addresses
blottsie writes Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush hasn't even yet formally declared his desire to run for president in 2016, but he's already started what appears to be a major privacy blunder. His new project, the Jeb Emails, a massive, open database of correspondence to and from his jeb@jeb.org email address, publishes the full names, messages, and email addresses of his constituents who emailed him during his eight years in office.
If you're sending an email to the government and expect it not to be subject to foia, maybe you should think again.
This disclosure appears in his signature on most of the messages I looked at...
Please note: Florida has a very broad public records law.
Most written communications to or from state officials
regarding state business are public records available to the
public and media upon request. Your e-mail communications
may therefore be subject to public disclosure.
Update in the article:
The Verge has uncovered emails that contain Social Security numbers, home addresses, and other personal information from Floridians.
We were in read-only mode most of the day while some server issues were fixed. Sorry for the downtime!
It's Florida. All metadata is automatically considered public record, and contents are also public record if they bear on a state official's duties. Jeb was a state official (governor), so his e-mails are all automatically public record.
It's not a mistake, and it's not illegal: in Florida, public officials have no privacy on anything that pertains to their job. Every state official's salary, from the janitors' to the governor's, is listed in a giant, public-facing database, searchable by employee name. Colleges have a separate excel sheet, with salaries listed by name. The stuff you think people would want to keep quiet: in Florida, it's public. It's called the Sunshine Law.
Governor's e-mails? Of course that shit's public.