Politech: Treasury Dept. breaks word on keeping email addresses private [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://news.com.com/2100-1028-5137488.html

Treasury breaks word on e-mail anonymity
Last modified: January 8, 2004, 11:06 AM PST
By Declan McCullagh 

The U.S. Treasury Department plans to publish nearly 10,000 e-mail
addresses on the Web, violating its privacy promise to Americans who
used e-mail to comment on a government proceeding.

In March 2003, the Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and
Trade Bureau (TTB) asked for e-mail comments about a proposal that
could raise the price of malt beverages like Bacardi Breezer and
Smirnoff Ice. At the time, the Department said that the text of
comments would made public--but assured people that e-mail addresses,
home addresses and other personal information of individuals would be
removed first. [...]

By October, the Treasury Department had received about 9,900 e-mail
messages, plus 4,800 comments sent through the U.S. mail or fax--and
decided it could no longer keep its promise.

[...]
_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)