From Associated Press
March 02, 2006 8:47 PM EST
ST. PAUL, Minn. - A computer disk that the Minnesota Republican Party prepared to support a ban on gay marriage has another purpose: gathering data on the politics of the people who view it.
And that's stirred up a technological tempest on the Internet and among Democrats who say the disk will improperly gather data from people who run it on their computers. Privacy experts say they're concerned that the GOP won't adequately warn users that it's collecting the data, and they worry where the information will end up.
But GOP officials said the final version of the CD that's due to be mailed soon to hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans will contain a notice that the information gathered may be used by the party.
(snip)
Party officials distributed what they called test copies of the CDs to the media on Monday. Those disks contained no disclaimers saying that data was being collected and transmitted.
http://www.newsday.com/technology/wire/sns-ap-tech-voter-mining,0,1285894.story?coll=sns-ap-technology-headlines