The issue regarding Personal Data Privacy is that you can only use the information for the purpose it was gathered. In the case of the White House website, they say that they are gathering the information to respond to queries about issues. That would make it legitimate to send issue emails to the people who agreed to have their emails recorded.This would also apply to emails from Congress being used by the White House. They are separate bodies established for different purposes. People who contact Congress are engaging their own representatives in the legislative process. The Executive Branch has nothing to do with that engagement with the people. If the White House is using a Congressional database of emails for Executive branch purposes, that would be a violation of personal data privacy.That said, it would be ILLEGAL to take a campaign database of emails and use it for White House government purposes, because those email addresses were captured for an entirely different purpose, and people presumably did not give their permission for the emails to be used for issue solicitation after the election. It would also be illegal to take a DNC database of emails and use it for White House purposes. It would also be illegal to take a union database of emails and use it for White House purposes.
-PJ
Bingo, PJ. Think I’ll sue.