Morons in the News: MN GOP Violates Privacy of Thousands
What the Minnesota Republican Party isn't telling you about the CDs they're mailing out could hurt you...
Posted by spatula on Mar. 01, 2006.
The Minnesota Republican Party mailed out thousands of CDs to residents containing software
encouraging users to hate gays and support a proposed marriage amendment. The software on the disc asks users questions about their positions on abortion, gun control, illegal immigration, and the like.
Then it packages up your answers, along with your name, telephone number, how long it took you to answer questions, your home address, your IP address, and other personal information
and transmits that data back to the Minnesota GOP, unencrypted over the Internet and without telling you. The disc contains no privacy notice. This may already violate privacy and consumer protection laws and other laws intended to protect citizens from spyware and phishing.
But it gets worse. Much worse. Minnesota Public Radio correspondent Bob Collins reported that by sniffing the packets transmitted by the CD, it was possible for analysts to determine exactly where the data was sent, and anyone could also go to a web site by the same address and view all of the data submitted by other people's computers. He verified this by creating two bogus entries with the CD which he could then immediately view on the unsecured web site (no password required). The web site already contains personal data from some 25,000 people.
Any ideas on how the Minnesota GOP is likely to spin this? Surely they'll find some way to blame their own abject stupidity and disregard for privacy on liberals and Democrats. Maybe it'll be the old standby of blaming the security flaws on the people who find and expose the security flaws...
---Nick
