RE: Anonymity, Secrecy, Privacy

[Jason Kitcat <jeep@free-project.org>]

Hi,

>I'm not so sure.  In most jurisdictions I'm familiar with privacy and data
>protection legislation would kick in as soon as the voted ballot document
>was transmitted irrespective of whether it was encrypted or not.  Of course
>the legislation could be amended but as it presently stands.... 
>
>Also, in the US, in some jurisdictions I've been looking at the election
>administrators keep digital voting history records, ie. whether a voter
>turned up at the polling place or not.  In those cases it is possible to say
>who voted but not how they voted.

Indeed in GNU.FREE 1.7 we have decided to provide such data. It's 
particularly important in mixed media elections to make sure that 
someone who voted online doesn't then turn up to a polling station to 
vote again -  collecting voting history helps to prevent this.

I don't know, but I wonder if there aren't any special exemptions for 
the electoral roll under data protection legilsation...? Either way 
the strength of the EU guidelines means that we'll need to make sure 
the standard is very privacy 'aware'.

I agree with Kevin that privacy kicks in as soon as something is transmitted.

Personally IMHO the key issue that arose from this debate was (as 
Thom began to point out) the complex and confusing English vocab on 
the whole election industry. Perhaps we should clarify as many terms 
as possible as I was certainly mixing and matching terms like privacy 
and security like they were going out of fashion!

All the best,
Jason

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