SHARED DATA: Abraham Hankey contacted Watchdog after he noticed a similar typo in his name on both his hunting license from the North Dakota Game & Fish Department and a mailing from Pheasants Forever. He was concerned that his private information was being shared, and it turns out he was right.
Much of the information hunters give the state of North Dakota isn’t so private, Watchdog.org has learned.
When Park River resident Abraham Hankey got a bow-hunting license from the Game & Fish Department in the mail, he noticed something weird. A mailing from Pheasants Forever, of which he was never a member, also arrived — complete with the same typo in his name.
“It’s obvious my name was spelled wrong and that they gave out my name,” he told Watchdog.org in a phone interview.
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That’s exactly what happened. In fact, the Game & Fish Department regularly disseminates its database of names and addresses — including tens of thousands people — who have obtained fishing and hunting licenses in the state.
When Pheasants Forever accessed this information in 2014, requesting only data for small-game hunters, it got nearly 85,000 names and addresses, including more than 55,000 North Dakota residents and nearly 30,000 non-residents. The organization wasn’t charged a fee for accessing the information.
“We have no authority to deny such requests,” said Kim Kary, head of the department’s Administrative Services Division. “North Dakota law requires us to be responsive to all open records requests.”
Everyone gets the data, even for political purposes
Since 2012, the last year for which the Game & Fish Department has information available, 47 requests from 30 organizations have been made for the hunting and fishing license database.
The list of those organizations includes retailers such as Target and Cabelas, people-tracking websites such as PeopleFinders.com and even one political party.
According to Game & Fish records, the North Dakota Democratic Party accessed the list in 2014, the same year the party filed a criminal complaint against a Republican-aligned marketing firm alleging a violation of state “corrupt practices” law by requesting student directory information from the North Dakota University System.
“We believe that it is wrong for the private information of college students to be shared for any political or commercial purpose,” Rep. Kylie Oversen of Grand Forks, now the party’s chairwoman, and Rep. Josh Boschee of Fargo, say in a news release from the party in September 2014. “In order to comply with Odney Advertising’s request, state employees at each of our colleges and universities are pulling lists for Odney Advertising. This essentially means state employees are doing political work on behalf of Odney Advertising and their political clients, which includes the North Dakota Republican Party and other interest groups. This raises the likelihood that the Corrupt Practices Act could be violated.”
Democrats filed a criminal complaint over the request with the Grand Forks and Cass counties’ sheriffs’ departments. It didn’t result in charges.
We got no response to an email sent to executive director Robert Haider requesting comment on why his party requested this data and why they used it.
No notification given
Hankey said he was surprised to learn his name and home address were public record because he bought legally required hunting and fishing licenses. “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” he said. “I don’t understand why they would just give them out like that.”
Most people who buy these licenses would probably be surprised to learn their names and mailing addresses, often a home address, are public record. The Game & Fish Department says it makes no efforts to warn license buyers their data is public, or to notify them when that data is accessed.
“The Department does not inform a ND G&F licensee that the licensee’s name and address are releasable under North Dakota law in response to an open records request,” Kary said in an email. “Such notification is not required under law. It is not feasible, especially in open records requests of this magnitude, to individually contact individuals when such a request is made for all the names and addresses of licensees.”
Emails and phone numbers are exempt from public records requests under state law, but addresses — including home addresses — aren’t.
Here’s the full list of the organizations that accessed this data since 2012, along with the years it was requested:
Info-Link Technologies (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015)
William-Neil Associates (Cabella’s) (2012, 2014, 2015)
Lisa Wigger (2012)
Rock Communications (2013, 2014)
boathistoryreport.com (2013, 2014, 2015)
Statistical Surveys, Inc. (2013, 2014, 2015)
C.B. Pearson (2013)
Dakota Country Magazine (2013)
Fur-Fish-Game Magazine (2013)
US Army (2013)
Infocision.com (2013, 2014)
eMerges.com (2013, 2015)
Prestige Imports, LLC (2013)
Infogroup.com (2013, 2014, 2015)
ND Democratic NPL (2014)
ND Clean Water, Wildlife, and Parks (2014)
Target (2014, 2015)
Donorfinders.com (2014, 2015)
William Bilsing (2014, 2015)
Pheasants Forever (2014)
Peoplefinders.com (2014)
Foremost.com (2014)
Bowhuntingroad.com (2014)
Bismarck prop works (2015)
Battery Doctors (2015)
Vallely sport and marine (2015)
Mills Fleet Farm (2015)
New Mexico Outdoor Properties (2015)
Portland Outdoors, LLC (2015)
Integrated DM (2015)