City hands over residents' e-mails.

• Position: PRIVACY - Brief article

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A Cary, N.C., resident filed a public records request for thousands of e-mail addresses stored in the town's database, and officials handed them over, as state law requires. But other residents are shocked and angry that their personal information was handed out.

The town alerted thousands of residents whose e-mails were given to John Beimler, the resident who made the request. Beimler received 19,000 e-mail addresses from the town's database, according to Cary spokesperson Susan Moran.

Also alarming is there are no legal restrictions on what Beimler can do with those addresses now that he has them. He could even sell them. But Beimler told Cary's ABC News affiliate that he doesn't have nefarious plans for the e-mail addresses. In fact, he said he requested them...