Oregon House passes bill targeting email spammers

In a bipartisan vote, the Oregon House passed a bill Monday protecting constituents’ personal email addresses from spammers abusing the public records process.

Currently, spammers can easily build massive email lists from unsuspecting citizens by simply filing broad public records requests with legislative offices for their newsletter lists or other databases storing private email addresses.

House Bill 2874 prevents these email addresses from getting into the hands of spammers taking advantage of the public records requests.

These protections already exist for email addresses stored by state agencies due to a 2013 law; HB 2874 updates the law by adding people who contact legislative offices.

Rep. Phil Barnhart (D-Eugene) championed the legislation after the email addresses of his constituents were targeted by an email spammer — someone who doesn’t live in his district and is known for sending countless unsolicited emails to thousands of unsuspecting recipients.

“When Oregonians email their legislators about issues or concerns, or when they sign up for a newsletter, they shouldn’t have to worry that their personal email addresses are going to end up as part of some direct marketing scheme by outside parties,” Barnhart said. “This is a common-sense addition to existing state law that ensures every Oregonian has a right to keep their personal, private contact information from being distributed far and wide.”

HB 2874 passed on a bipartisan 36-21 vote.

“No one who emails their legislator expects their private email address to end up on a spam mailing list,” said Rep. David Gomberg (D-Otis), who spoke to the bill on the House floor. “Oregonians have a right to their privacy and we have a duty as legislators to ensure that they are able to maintain it.”

The bill will now be considered by the Senate.