DOJ demands records from two nonprofits tied to Facebook founder over voters' data privacy
The Department of Homeland Security previously asked the Justice Department to investigate nonprofits over potential privacy law violations involving motor vehicle data. The current arrangement exposes millions of citizens’ sensitive private data to unknown contractors, subcontractors and non-profit agents, potentially in violation of the DPPA.
The Justice Department is demanding that two nonprofits tied to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg turn over records of their use of sensitive voter data obtained through state motor vehicle departments after the Homeland Security Department raised concerns last month that the arrangement violated privacy laws.
Just the News reported last month that the Homeland Security Department asked the Justice Department to investigate whether sensitive state voter data — including Social Security and driver's license numbers — was transferred to the two organizations in violation of federal privacy laws, according to a letter that was made public by the White House Government Transparency Task Force.
In the letter, DHS outlined what it believes is a possible violation of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) by the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a nonprofit organization that helps states maintain the integrity of their voter rolls. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia are members of ERIC. Mullin's letter contends that ERIC has not done anything wrong.
The problem, Mullin wrote, is that ERIC “exposes millions of citizens’ sensitive private data to unknown contractors, subcontractors and agents of ERIC–potentially in violation of the DPPA,” Just the Newsreported.
According to Mullin, ERIC “lobbies states to sign a contract that requires the disclosure of the private data of individuals who were not registered to vote and therefore certainly could not be in need of voter list maintenance. The data fields disclosed include Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers.”
Later, ERIC turned over such sensitive data to at least one nonprofit organization, the Center for Election Innovation and Research – which has received millions in funding from a foundation founded by Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg, the wife of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and has provided grants to state election officials who agreed to turn over the data.
The Justice Department sent letters last week to ERIC and CEIR, outlining concerns that the arrangement is in violation of the DPPA and may have exposed the use of protected personal information for partisan purposes.
"Partisan purposes is not a government function," says A.G.'s Woodward
“Even apart from the issue of disclosure to third parties, the scope of ERIC's own use of DPPA-protected personal information remains unclear. Although using such information in furtherance of government functions may be a permitted use, using protected information for certain partisan purposes is not a government function and is thus not permitted under the DPPA — regardless of whether a state consents,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote in a letter to ERIC on Sept. 30 and obtained by Just the News.
You can read the letters below:
Woodward asked ERIC to turn over information about the services ERIC provides to its members, the research projects it conducts, its correspondence with state motor vehicle departments, and records relating to its “sharing or disclosure of information obtained by a state department of motor vehicles.”
A nearly identical letter was also sent to CEIR, the organization that received protected private motor vehicle registration data from ERIC.
ERIC and CEIR were both founded and organized by David Becker, a former government lawyer who later became a director for the progressive People for the American Way. That organization's website uses language associated with a self-styled anti-Trump "resistance," and says, "We believe in a government that works on behalf of the public interest—not the private interests of Musk and other billionaires. And our courts should provide justice for everyone—not just the rich and powerful. Donald Trump’s MAGA movement threatens all of us."
Zuckerberg’s foundation dumped more than $400 million into election nonprofits in 2020 alone
The Homeland Security Department is concerned that the motor vehicle data, which includes identifying information about potential voters, could be used in a partisan way to benefit a political party.
Ahead of the 2020 election, Chan Zuckerberg's foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, provided more than $70 million in funding to CEIR, according to Mullin's letter. During the election, Zuckerberg’s foundation dumped more than $400 million into two nonprofits, CEIR and the Center for Tech & Civic Life, to provide grants to local and state election officials, respectively, in order to help them administer the 2020 election.
When CEIR announced the massive infusion of donations in October 2020, it said the money had come from both Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. "Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Increase Support for Safe and Reliable Voting," the announcement stated. With that funding, CEIR gave grants to states under the Voter Education Grant Program to “provide nonpartisan, accurate, and official voting information to the public.” That year, 23 states and Washington, D.C., applied for and accepted grant funds from CEIR.
“While a DOJ investigation could determine the final number of files involved, Homeland Security officials believe at least nine states engaged in the grant agreement authorizing the transfer of the data and those 9 states have over 48 million registered voters,” an administration official told Just the News. “Homeland believes the number transferred could be much higher since the number of individuals in each state’s Motor Vehicle database would exceed the registered voter number because it included motorists who had not registered to vote.”
ERIC claims that the disclosure of the data was permitted under the law's research exception
The Homeland Security Department highlighted the terms of one such $13 million grant from CEIR to Pennsylvania that required the state to turn over motor vehicle data "originally shared with ERIC, to be used by CEIR to create” lists of eligible but unregistered voters that the organization could use for voter registration outreach.
Homeland Security said that ERIC claimed that the disclosure of the data to CEIR was permitted under the research exception in federal statutes governing the privacy of personal information from state motor vehicle records. However, the statutes provide three requirements for this exception: that “the personal information is not published, re-disclosed or used to contact individuals.” Mullin told the Justice Department that his agency possesses evidence that ERIC contacted “eligible or possibly eligible” citizens who were not registered to vote.
Additionally, email communications disclosed in a public records request in Georgia showed that “CEIR was ‘coordinating ERIC [eligible voter] outreach’ which was contacting each individual identified in the motor vehicle file,” Mullin wrote.
Editor's Note: John Solomon is working as an unpaid Special Government Employee as the chairman of the White House Government Transparency Task Force and has taken a leave of absence as Editor-in-Chief of Just the News while he serves in that role.
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