Jeb Bush's attempt to appear transparent backfired massively

In an attempt to prove his transparency ahead of the 2016 presidential election race, Jeb Bush decided to release all the emails he sent and received while he was governor of Florida.

What the Republican, and younger brother of former president George W Bush, forgot to do was to redact the potentially sensitive personal information of the hundreds of thousands of people who emailed him.

In the spirit of transparency I am posting the emails of my governorship here. Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in frustration. But they're all here so you can read them and make up your own mind.

• Jeb Bush statement on his website

The Verge reports that some of the posts on the Jeb Bush Emails website reveal the email addresses, telephone numbers, home addresses and social security numbers of his former constituents. Another even revealed discussions about the dismissal of a Florida Lottery employee, while others discussed the personal health of constituents.

Quartz reports finding at least 205 social security numbers from a brief analysis of the email dump. Although he hasn't officially announced he will be running as a presidential candidate, Quartz suggests his cyber-security gaffe doesn't do much for his credentials.

After reports of the blunder emerged, a representative for Bush told reporters in the US that the website only published what was already available in the public record.

Nevertheless, the files no longer appear to be available for download online (with the above message appearing instead when you try to download them) and any personal information from the emails will be removed by his staff before being replaced. And what a fun job that will be.

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