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--- Begin Message ----Caveat Lector- Wired.com December 11, 2003For Sale: The American Voter By Kim Zetter One of the nation's largest commercial distributors of voter data sold voter- registration lists featuring detailed personal information without verifying the identity or intent of buyers. Aristotle International used a website to sell the lists, which contain details about registered voters from nearly every state. The data includes birth dates, home addresses, phone numbers, race, income levels, ethnic backgrounds and, in some cases, religious affiliations. Although voter-registration data is a matter of public record, 22 states have laws restricting the purchase or use of voter lists. Yet Aristotle, based in Washington, D.C., sold lists online to anyone who wanted to buy them. The company said it was not aware that its site was selling lists without verification. Spokesman Michael Colopy said the site had procedures to verify buyers before they could order online. However, they were not in place when a Wired News reporter purchased two voter lists earlier this month and again this week after Aristotle said it had fixed the problem. As long as the company did not sell lists from states that prohibit online sales of voter data -- such as Arizona -- the company did not do anything illegal. And as long as the site included a notice informing buyers of permissible uses for the data, the onus for adhering to usage laws was up to buyers. But the security slip-up underscores what many critics of voter-list sales argue -- that the simple act of registering to vote can open voters to unintentional privacy intrusions as long as states make it legal to distribute voter data to secondary parties. Colopy told Wired News that the company went to great lengths to make sure that it complied with state laws in offering the data online and ensuring that only authorized buyers purchased it. "We have a full-time officer whose job it is to make sure that data we have is used only and exclusively in the context of what the law in that jurisdiction requires," he said. "There are very complex and important rules that restrict the use of the data, and we're very scrupulous about that." To that end, Aristotle employees verified every client to make certain they were who they said they were, he said. And buyers had to sign a written contract stating their knowledge of restricted uses on the data. "It's basic due diligence," Colopy said. But in reality, Aristotle's site allowed anyone to register and purchase lists under a phony name and address. The site asked only for a name, the state where the buyer resided, an e-mail address and a phone number. Fields for mailing address and company name were optional. By registering first as Condoleezza Rice and then as Britney Spears, a Wired News reporter purchased two lists containing data on about 1,700 California voters and 900 South Carolina voters. Although the name on the credit card used to purchase the lists did not match the names on the Aristotle accounts, the transactions went through anyway. The site never requested a reason for purchasing the data but did require the buyer to click a user agreement stating the data could not be used for commercial purposes. The site's user agreement for California, however, mistakenly cited nonexistent election laws. Aristotle said the citations came from the California Election Code, but the citation numbers and text it listed didn't match the code. "This was accidentally mislabeled at the Aristotle site as the Elections Code," Colopy explained in an e-mail. "Nonetheless, it is an accurate representation of the applicable law, actually from the implementing regulations referred to in California Elections Code 2194 (a)(2)." It's unclear how long Aristotle's site was processing unverified transactions. Colopy said the company launched the site three years ago to make it easier for clients to purchase their data in an automated fashion. But only authenticated clients were supposed to make purchases. Three days after an initial discussion, the company still had not determined the source of the problem. Colopy said the company temporarily disabled the automated feature to prevent further unauthorized sales. Any new buyers visiting the site would have to deal with a live person before completing a transaction, he said. But two days later, Wired News again was able to purchase lists on the site using a phony name. Besides a name, address, phone number and birth date, the lists included each voter's registration date, political affiliation, income range, occupation and whether he or she owned a home or had children. Ethnic codes identified voters as black or white (nine states ask voters to declare their race; three of them require it) and other codes identified Scots-Irish, French, Arab, Jewish or Catholic voters. A phone survey of voters who were identified as Arab on the list, however, indicated the data was incorrect. Aristotle also listed information about each voter's participation in past elections, as well as campaign and charitable contributions taken from Federal Election Commission records. Charitable contributions were divided into religious, environmental, animal-rights and domestic-abuse categories. Although Colopy insisted that Aristotle never added information from market research to its voter files, the files included a category indicating whether voters had purchased merchandise through mail-order catalogs. Sylvia Levy, a South Carolina voter whose data appeared on a list purchased by Wired News, said she was surprised to learn about the transaction. "If I knew this, I would never have registered," she said. "This is very disturbing, and I'm very disappointed in the system." Levy said she was particularly concerned that someone who might want to harm her could obtain her address this way. Alan Cohen, a California voter, was less concerned that his information was accessible in this way. "I'm a psychiatrist. I deal with paranoia every day," he said, laughing. "You'll have to do better than that." He added that voting records were just one way to collect personal data. "More of people's information gets out when they make purchases and fill out warranty information," he said. "It's a Pandora's box that's too late to close." Aristotle, like other data collectors, obtains voter lists from county and state election offices around the country. Many states restrict the sale of lists to political parties, candidates and nonprofit organizations that work on ballot initiatives. But data collectors that cater to political entities can buy them as well. They often enhance the lists with additional public records and marketing data before selling them to their clients. Aristotle boasts more than 157 million voter records and sells them online for $25 per 1,000 names, or $80 per 1,000 names for highly prized New Hampshire voters. The company sells them to several thousand clients, including a majority of congressional representatives, its website says. Most states do not warn voters that their registration data may be sold to third parties, according to a recent nationwide study of voter-registration practices by the California Voter Foundation. "The simple act of signing up to register to vote leads to this chain of data that goes to a lot of places you're not aware of," said Keith Mills, who helped conduct the research. "They're not necessarily bad or sinister places, just places that you're not aware of." But critics say the fact that states don't tell voters how their data will be used violates voters' privacy. "In most areas we're seeing a general practice of disclosure about how information is used, and in other areas people are being given the choice of opting out," said Mills. "But not in the case of voter data." Some states try to limit the exposure of voter data by requiring buyers like data collectors and political candidates to apply for lists in writing and sign an oath stating their intended use. But if a buyer resells or gives away the data, those precautions are less effective. To prevent data from falling into the wrong hands, some data collectors seed their lists with decoy addresses to help determine if someone resells them or uses the data improperly. Penalties for misusing voter data vary among states. California fines users 50 cents per voter record. South Carolina caps the fine at $500, with up to a year in prison for violators. However, states do not generally police the use of voter lists. Nathan Barakin, spokesman for the California attorney general, said cases involving the misuse of voter files are prosecuted by the district attorney in the state where the violation occurs. As far as he knew, no such cases had been filed in California. (c) Copyright 2003, Lycos, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61543,00.html __________________________________________________________________ portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a news, discussion and debate service of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It aims to provide varied material of interest to people on the left. Post : mail to '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subscribe : mail to '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Unsubscribe : mail to '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Faq : http://www.portside.org List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web address : <http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/portside> Digest mode : visit Web site Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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