Jeb Bush just published thousands of citizens' names and email addresses

[swag]

Source: The Daily Dot

By Kevin Collier on February 10, 2015

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 email privacy blunder. His new project, the Jeb Emails, a massive, open database of correspondence to and from his [e-mail] email address, publishes the names, messages, and email addresses of his constituents who emailed him during his eight years in office.

“I emailed Governor Bush when the state was going through the initial insurance crisis,” one woman, whose AOL email address was among those in the database, told the Daily Dot. “I have never [given authorization] to publish the emails, but then [they] never said they were confidential or proprietary property of the Governor's office. They were just emails.”

"I am fine with it on the emails concerning homeowners insurance," the woman added. Ones about "illegal immigrants," however, embarrassed her. "My feelings have changed on that subject and I wold hate to unduly upset anyone," she said.

It’s difficult to estimate how many different personal email addresses are in the database, and many come from Floridians’ work accounts. But the number is easily in the thousands and more likely in the tens of thousands. The governor’s office didn’t respond to an emailed inquiry about what information, if any, they did choose to redact, though it appears as though phone numbers have been obscured.


Read more: http://www.dailydot.com/politics/jeb-bush-email-scandal-database/

[MynameisBlarney]

1. LOL, that's two in one week.

What's next I wonder...
Leaked pics of him dressed up as SS?

[nashville_brook]

2. Jeb taking tea with the Saudi families secreted out of FL on 9/11?

[George II]

4. ...on the ONLY non-military aircraft over the United States that week!

[MynameisBlarney]

5. I think either is possible

but yours is much more likely, lol.

[Delphinus]

15. What was the first?

I've been too busy to keep up lately.

[MynameisBlarney]

18. His CTO

Made a series of sexist and homophobic tweets.

[George II]

3. And he wants us to "trust" him with the Presidency?

Will occupying the White House give his wife free reign to smuggle as much jewelry and clothes into country, too?

[peacefreak]

6. Keep on going Jebbie

You're a gift that keeps on giving!

[msanthrope]

7. Proceed, Governor. nt

[FLPanhandle]

8. I really hope he doesn't flame out too early

Going up agaisnt a Bush would be perfect for Democrats in 2016.

[tiptonic]

9. Kids

Any of his kids still in jail? Hope he runs. It will be so much fun.

[Scuba]

10. And he's known as the smart brother!

[Enthusiast]

12. He might be a little smarter but he is just as evil.

[TBF]

16. That's a pretty low bar ... nt

[former9thward]

11. These are public records.

Anyone can access them through FOIA. Whenever I write to my city councilman there is a message saying anything can be released that is sent to the city.

[Jackpine Radical]

14. No, there was nothing illegal about publishing this stuff, but

neither was there a requirement that they do so, and it might have been wiser not to. Likely a lot of the people who wrote the emails had no notion that their email would be published (as opposed to just public, like, say, court records). Perhaps they would have chosen different words in certain instances if they had known that the messages would be published widely, and they may thus feel their trust violated.

[JDPriestly]

20. Not illegal, but very offensive. Very offensive.

This faux pas demonstrates a lack of sensitivity to the feelings of others, a lack of the sense of the importance of the trust that individuals place in the officials in government that they confide in.

This is just so mean-spirited.

Jeb Bush was described as a bully in high school. This is the sort of thing a bully would do.

And Chris Christie is the same type.

But I bet if someone did this to the e-mails sent by Jeb Bush, Jeb would be furious. Who knows what he would do? He has a lot of personal power.

This is a big mistake. There will be more to come. Jeb Bush has shown his penchant for disrespect of others.

You know what would be interesting. What you said. Contact these people and find out whether they were happy with the way Jeb handled their correspondence. And then ASK JEB SPECIFICALLY ABOUT JUST WHAT HE WAS ASKED BY SPECIFICALLY NAMED PEOPLE AND WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARD.

Let's find out whether the list is cherry-picked to make him look good.

[csziggy]

29. Florida Sunshine law makes it public

Now it is automatically "published" to a publicly accessible site. The contact form for the governor has this statement:

Under Florida law, all correspondence sent to the Governor’s Office, which is not exempt or confidential pursuant to Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes, is a public record. All public record electronic mail sent through this website will be posted to Project Sunburst at http://www.flgov.com/sunburst , and will be accessible to the public. If you do not want the public record contents of your e-mail or your e-mail address to be published on this website or to be provided to the public in response to a public records request, please do not send electronic mail to this entity.

Please be aware that personal information sent in your correspondence, such as home addresses and telephone numbers, may be posted to the Sunburst public records website.
http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/email-the-governor/

I'm not sure what notice was up when Jeb Bush was governor, but I know that most Florida government sites have some sort of notice and have had them for years.

[joshcryer]

26. The very FOIA law in FL mentions radicating personal data.

Bush's team failed to do it because they are idiots.

[former9thward]

31. Nope.

This is the Florida statement:

Under Florida law, all correspondence sent to the Governor’s Office, which is not exempt or confidential pursuant to Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes, is a public record. All public record electronic mail sent through this website will be posted to Project Sunburst at http://www.flgov.com/sunburst , and will be accessible to the public. If you do not want the public record contents of your e-mail or your e-mail address to be published on this website or to be provided to the public in response to a public records request, please do not send electronic mail to this entity.

Please be aware that personal information sent in your correspondence, such as home addresses and telephone numbers, may be posted to the Sunburst public records website.

http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/email-the-governor/

[joshcryer]

32. 119.071(5) exempts SS # among many other things.

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0119/0119.html

Social security numbers held by an agency are confidential and exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution. This exemption applies to social security numbers held by an agency before, on, or after the effective date of this exemption. This exemption does not supersede any federal law prohibiting the release of social security numbers or any other applicable public records exemption for social security numbers existing prior to May 13, 2002, or created thereafter.
6. Social security numbers held by an agency may be disclosed if any of the following apply:
a. The disclosure of the social security number is expressly required by federal or state law or a court order.
b. The disclosure of the social security number is necessary for the receiving agency or governmental entity to perform its duties and responsibilities.
c. The individual expressly consents in writing to the disclosure of his or her social security number.
d. The disclosure of the social security number is made to comply with the USA Patriot Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-56, or Presidential Executive Order 13224.
e. The disclosure of the social security number is made to a commercial entity for the permissible uses set forth in the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994, 18 U.S.C. ss. 2721 et seq.; the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. ss. 1681 et seq.; or the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, 15 U.S.C. ss. 6801 et seq., provided that the authorized commercial entity complies with the requirements of this paragraph.
f. The disclosure of the social security number is for the purpose of the administration of health benefits for an agency employee or his or her dependents.
g. The disclosure of the social security number is for the purpose of the administration of a pension fund administered for the agency employee’s retirement fund, deferred compensation plan, or defined contribution plan.
h. The disclosure of the social security number is for the purpose of the administration of the Uniform Commercial Code by the office of the Secretary of State.

The idea that a data dump of that magnitude is within the FL state constitution is asinine. Even the federal level FOIA exempts SS # and many other things.

[former9thward]

33. The OP was specifically about "releasing names and emails addresses".

That is what I addressed and if you read the posts that is what most of the posts have been about.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Not just the names & email addresses.

The actual contents of the emails.

If it is legal to do so (and I think it would be), it would be very interesting to mine that data set as an informal way of seeing what's on people's minds--at least those people who care enough about something to email the Governor. Of course it's a highly biased sample, but that fact wouldn't matter for certain kinds of content analysis.

[jtuck004]

17. There was a story here earlier about a teen who attached a Chili Beef Recipe instead of a resume.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2943171/Whoops-Teenager-applying-estate-agent-job-accidentally-attached-Jamie-Oliver-recipe-chilli-beef-instead-CV.html

Maybe he hired her? Maybe he was hungry?

[JDPriestly]

19. That is utterly offensive! Jeb Bush doesn't put much value on the privacy of his constituents.

What an awful thing to do.

If I write to my governor to ask for help or complain, my question or complaint is personal to me. Who in the world thought this stupid idea of publishing these e-mails without specifically asking each author of each e-mail for permission?

It's really stupid!

[vkkv]

21. More Bush incompetence

The entire family is pretty much useless.

[blkmusclmachine]

23. Oh, they're "useful" alright. That's how they keep getting into the White House...

[blkmusclmachine]

22. The next Bush disaster is brewing.

[Newsjock]

24. AND SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/10/8013531/jeb-bush-florida-email-dump-privacy

... Some also contain the email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers of Florida residents.

[Panich52]

25. Seems he has as little concern f/ privacy as his brother.

[Cha]

27. Keep digging Jebsteryou can catch up with Walker.. or is he catching up to you.. it's all so messy

[napkinz]

34. posted about this in GD

more at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026218396

[sgtbenobo]

28. two words

"Yuri Andropov"

Their dead and they make me laugh.

President Jeb Bush! Really?

[DeSwiss]

30. K&R