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Not all Web sites up to speed on new spam law

Pinellas County, St. Petersburg and Tampa have posted the warning, but it's nowhere on the Hillsborough Countysite.

By WILL VAN SANT
Published July 11, 2006

CLEARWATER - Visit the Web site of any government body in Florida, and you should start seeing a warning meant to protect people from unwanted e-mail, commonly called spam.

Spurred by two South Florida legislators - Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, and Rep. Ari Porth. D-Coral Springs - state lawmakers passed what they call the Slam Spam Bill last session.

The bill outlines penalties, including jail time, for those who send unsolicited e-mail in bulk.

But that's not all the bill does.

At the request of Senate President Tom Lee, R-Valrico, Aronberg said, he included a provision that requires governments to post a warning "in a conspicuous location" on their Web sites. The warning tells visitors that e-mail addresses are subject to disclosure under the state's public records law.

If visitors don't want their e-mail addresses released as the result of a public records request, the warning advises, they should make contact by telephone or mail.

The bill took effect July 1.

As of Monday, the warning appeared on the Web sites for Pinellas County, Tampa and St. Petersburg but could not be found on the Hillsborough County site.

On Friday, Hillsborough Administrator Pat Bean said she was going to find out why she was unaware of the new law and planned to come into compliance this week.

So, what's behind the warning?

"It was to protect the people," bill sponsor Aronberg said. "It just gives people knowledge and awareness."

Aronberg said he did not know of any instance in which professional spammers got hold of private e-mail addresses through a public records request to a local government.

But, Aronberg said, he did recall a case involving a state legislator who collected the e-mail addresses on individual lawmakers' contact lists and sent unsolicited mass mailings while campaigning for office.

Aronberg couldn't recall the name.

In 2003, the office of House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, who was seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, drew criticism for using the contact lists of fellow lawmakers to send a mass e-mail to 25,000 Floridians.

At the time, a Byrd spokeswoman called the incident a glitch.

Will Van Sant can be reached at vansant@sptimes.com or 727 445-4166.

[Last modified July 11, 2006, 06:13:27]