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Georgia Gives Personal Data of 6 Million Voters To Georgia GunOwner Magazine (ajc.com)
McGruber writes: A class action lawsuit alleges that Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp's office released the personal identifying information of Georgia voters to twelve organizations, "including statewide political parties, news media organizations and Georgia GunOwner Magazine".
According to Kemp, his office shares "voter registration data every month with news media and political parties that have requested it as required by Georgia law. Due to a clerical error where information was put in the wrong file, 12 recipients received a disc that contained personal identifying information that should not have been included."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution independently confirmed the inclusion of the personal data in the October file. The AJC did so by accessing the October data disc, looking up information for an AJC staffer and confirming his Social Security number and driver's license information was included. The AJC has returned its copy of the disc to the state.
According to Kemp, his office shares "voter registration data every month with news media and political parties that have requested it as required by Georgia law. Due to a clerical error where information was put in the wrong file, 12 recipients received a disc that contained personal identifying information that should not have been included."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution independently confirmed the inclusion of the personal data in the October file. The AJC did so by accessing the October data disc, looking up information for an AJC staffer and confirming his Social Security number and driver's license information was included. The AJC has returned its copy of the disc to the state.
There were 12 organizations which received the info, which included some mistakenly provided personal info.
Singling out one organization in the headline seems to make this story a politically driven one.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
OK, so, is Slashdot a tech-news page or just trying to be Gawker?
The story here is that personally-identifying information was sent to 12 organizations. One of those organizations was a gun magazine (because they were one of the 12 that requested the info).
Editor 101 quiz, which of these headlines is more informative, and which is just polemic clickbait:
"Georgia Gives Personal Data of 6 Million Voters To Georgia GunOwner Magazine"
or
"Georgia Gives Personal Data of 6 Million Voters To 12 Organizations"
?
If we're going to go the polemic route, why not just go all the way? The Governor of GA is a Republican, you could instead re-title this:
"Republican Governor's office hands citizen data to Gun Magazine"?
-Styopa
Fixed your headline for you.
I am certainly not a gun-nut, but it seems that the magazine in the headline has no more blame in this matter than the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Nothing new. TV has been doing this for decades. 'This substance WILL kill you. And it's in YOUR home right now. Information you need to save your life and the lives of your family... After this commercial break.'
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Here is the list of organizations who got the info:
Georgia Democratic Party
Georgia Republican Party
Georgia Libertarian Party
Independence Party of Georgia
Southern Party of Georgia
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Macon Telegraph
Savannah Morning News
Georgia GunOwner Magazine
Georgia Pundit
News Publishing Co.
RedState
Who is the biggest risk? Who has the least to lose and the most ideological fervor? Who is most likely simply to get hacked?
Actually, it isn't the gun nut magazine, it's the Southern Party of Georgia.
That would make an even better headline: Georgia Gives Personal Data of 6 Million Voters To Racist Lost Cause Political Party You've Never Heard Of
The level of incompetence in the State of Georgia government has been increasing at an exponential rate for well over a decade now. As a life long Georgia Resident and former employee of this State it is not news to anyone living here. The guiding principle of governance by the last two administrations (and to some extent the one before) has been to outsource anything and everything to the bidder that make the largest campaign contribution. Low bid, high bid, competence -- none of those matter.
The higher paying State Jobs that are supposed to be overseeing this outsource mania have been filled by politically correct incompetents that have no idea of what they are supposed to be doing --and it is getting worse. I was fortunate to escape when I did.
To clarify one point in the article and the comments. The voter data that is mandated to be public record by law is limited to the voter's name and possibly address. The screw up in this is that they included such things as the full social security number, driver's license number, and other sensitive personal information. The Secretary of State (Bryan Kemp) maintained that since there was no security breach, this didn't have to be reported as such under law. I guess that gives is a good clue as to his mental state.
This one CHEAP TRICK that will sucker the public into reading this headline and clicking through!
"So long and thanks for all the fish."