Title: 
U.S. State Department Travel Registration and Privacy

Word Count:
861

Summary:
The U.S. State Department Travel Registration system takes a bad turn when they disclose email addresses of almost 1,000 U.S. Citizens in Colombia.


Keywords:
privacy email bogota Colombia safety security



Article Body:
The U.S. State Department offers lot of useful information to Americans via its embassies in almost every country. Especially important is information relating to the safety and security of Americans visiting or living in another country.

When visiting a foreign country you can register with the U.S. Embassy and in case there is a problem the embassy will have necessary contact information and/or permission to release information to relatives or others. To simplify things the State Department now allows you to register on line.

I had registered with the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia a couple years ago. They occasionally send emails, for example expected violent protests around election time. They do not sent many emails, but I usually find them interesting (and possibly useful).

This week, however, I received to emails that I found to be quite shocking! In fact they may impinge upon my feelings of safety and security rather than help protect me. The first email was quite simple. Just an announcement that the Embassy in Bogota had made a website for the consular section. Really, a boring, non useful and even less interesting email.

However, it did not take much examination to realize that included on the to line of the email was just a hair under 1,000 email addresses! Oops!

The following day comes the next email, this one claiming to be an apology, it reads exactly like this:

From: "BOGOTA, ACS"
To: "BOGOTA, ACS"
Subject: Message from U.S. Embassy
Date: Thu 03/29/07 07:22 AM

Dear American Citizen:

Yesterday, the U.S. Embassy’s American Citizen Services office sent an email message to U.S. citizens in Colombia, announcing the creation of a website for the Consular Section.

Inadvertently, the message was sent in a way that revealed each recipients email address to the other recipients.

We recognize that this was inappropriate, and we greatly regret the error. Unfortunately, it is not possible to recall the message, and so the most we can do is ask for your forgiveness and assure you that your email address will not be disclosed in future messages.

Please also accept my personal apology for the error.

Sincerely,

Ronald Packowitz
Consul

American Citizen Services
U.S. Embassy
Bogota, Colombia

ACSBogota@state.govhttp://turkiyespot.com/foia.state.gov/issuances/priviss.asp</a>. Lastly, while this internet site uses secure encryption to safeguard your privacy and therefore any unauthorized interception by third parties of the information you send via the internet is unlikely, please keep in mind that the Department of State is not responsible for any such interception.

I would take the phrase "WILL NOT DISCLOSE" (my emphasis above) to mean something a bit different than sending my email address to almost 1,000 others and then telling those people that I am an "U.S. Citizen in Colombia".