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Let me first apologize to my loyal readers for this post. Is is not the typical type of posts I write, but the subject has raised my hackles enough that I need to vent, and you need to know this anyway.
I recently received an email from my State Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. They email me because I chose to opt in when I purchased my hunting and fishing license online a few years back. I will say it again: I opted in at their website to receive email and newsletters from my State IF&W. So what do I get in my inbox today from the Dept that I now allow to email me? A nice apology explaining that because of the Freedom of Information Act, my email address is now Public Record and was just given to an individual to do whatever they want with it!
What the hell! My PERSONAL address that I give to no one but those I trust, is now public record that I am sure will be sold to some damn spammer! Maybe not initially, but I know at some point the address will be receiving tons of junk because of it. Oh, wait, we have the Can Spam Act. I am sure the spammers who get my address will surely follow that law right? I mean I have to, so they must too right? Yeah, right.
Here is the letter I received:
As you know, the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife periodically sends out informational emails to our online customers. We only send these e-mails out to customers who have indicated that they would like to receive them.
Recently, we had a Freedom of Access Act request from an individual who represents an organization for our customer e-mail address list. The Freedom of Access Act is a statute that requires a state agency to provide public records to anyone upon request. Our initial response to the individual was that our customer e-mail address list was not a public record and was therefore not covered by the Freedom of Access Act. The individual appealed our decision with the Maine Attorney General’s office that ruled in favor of the individual and directed IF&W to provide our customer e-mail address list to the individual. Therefore, we have recently provided our customer e-mail address list to the requesting individual per the direction of the Maine Attorney General’s Office.
The list contains only e-mail addresses, no other personal data is on the list. We wanted you to know that we did everything in our power to protect your privacy and apologize in advance for any issues this may cause you.
The thing that pisses me off the most is the fact that I do not freely pass out that address because I DON’T want it to be public. The letter does explain that the IF&W tried to fight the release of their email list and lost. The Maine Attorney General’s Office instructed them to release their database of email addresses. So, while the anger was still strong, I contacted the Maine Attorney Generals office to file a complaint; against the Maine Attorney Generals office! Well, not a formal one, but a complaint either way. Here is what I wrote:
I just received a nice letter from the DIFW letting me know that my email address has just been released under the Freedom of Information Act as instructed by your office. Nice going! I will be sure to forward all the goddamn spam I will receive to you so you can deal with it too. I specifically do not give out that address to anyone except those I trust so I DON’T get spam.
Although you found the addresses should be released per the statute, common sense should have revealed it to be a very bad idea. Maybe actually taking this particular part of the statute to the courts is a good idea huh?
Here is a suggestion that I will be giving Snowe and Collins, and maybe you can do something with it too: In BIG BOLD letters on EVERY page of EVERY State webpage, let everyone know that if they contact the State agency via email, their address will fall in the hands of spammers.
Again, nice going.
OK, so I was a little pissed, sue me! Next up are the two letters to Senators Snowe and Collins I need to write. HMMM, Come to think of it, I have contacted them in the past and now I realize that they too would have to release my address according to the Freedom From Information Act.
So folks, have you ever wondered just how in the hell some Viagra spammer or online pharmacy got your address in the first place? I am thinking the very people we trusted to write the laws to keep the spammers at bay!
Follow my lead and contact your representatives to let them know that this is unacceptable.
What do you think, should the email addresses be given out according the Freedom of Information Act?
Should the Act be amended to correct this issue?
Saw your blog bookmarked on Delicious. I love your site and marketing strategy. My Public Records Blog – http://downloadpublicrecords.blogspot.com/
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