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Georgia Gives Personal Data of 6 Million Voters To Georgia GunOwner Magazine (ajc.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the was-that-wrong? dept.

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.

6 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Why single out a magazine? by msauve · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Why single out a magazine? by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As a Georgian who owns guns, I have never even heard of this magazine nor seen it in any of the several gun stores/ranges I have gone to over the years. And looking at their website, it looks like something a high school student would throw together for a web publishing class. I agree, it does seem odd that it would specifically mention the magazine in the title, but the article itself only names the magazine, with the other groups being vaguely defined as "statewide political parties" and "news media organizations".

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    2. Re:Why single out a magazine? by dwillden · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How about not name any. They chose to list gunowner magazine to draw the ire of those opposed to anything related to gun rights. Heck they even noted that the reporting news agency received a copy of the data, why not list themselves? Or better yet just state the information was incorrectly released to multiple news agencies.

      --
      I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
    3. Re:Why single out a magazine? by msauve · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "which of the 12 should have been listed to make it apolitical?"

      None of them. All had a right to the data (minus what was erroneously included by the state). Why not a simple "Private data mistakenly handed out by the State of Georgia" headline, focusing blame where it falls? Or mention "12 organizations." If one organization must be chosen, then the Atlanta Journal-Constitution would be a logical choice - the article implies that it was they who noticed the breach.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  2. Learning time for Editors by argStyopa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  3. To everyone whining about the title... by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 4, Informative

    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