Privacy Digest

Contact list for Obama campaign left in trash - Via Longmont Times-Call:

LONGMONT — At first, all Adam Silver saw was that someone had dumped their trash in his trash bin. Then he looked closer and got a little worried.

Twenty-five to 30 pages of contact information — names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mails — were near the top of the pile, left there by the Obama “Campaign for Change” headquarters at 372 Main St, Silver said. None of the pages was shredded.

“My goal is not to get upset at people,” said Silver, who manages nearby at 380 Main St. “I’d rather be the nicer guy and say, ‘Do your due diligence with your campaign paperwork.’ ... All that stuff should be shredded properly.”

Longmont Police Cmdr. Tim Lewis said it’s unlikely that anyone could have used the sheets to commit identity theft, but he said it’s always better to be safe.

“Date of birth and Social Security number are the big thing,” Lewis said, though neither was contained on the sheets. “But in today’s society, it’s better to shred these things, just to be on the safe side. You need a little more than this to carry it over the top, but it is a beginning.”

A manager at the campaign office said he could not comment without clearance from the campaign’s press office.

The Longmont offices of both the Boulder County Democrats and the Boulder County Republicans said they routinely shred documents that are thrown away if they contain identity information. But Marty Nelson of the county Republicans noted that sticking to that policy requires careful attention.

“You’re working with a lot of volunteers,” she said. “Every needs to have the same message.”

(Read Original Article - Via Longmont Times-Call.)