- "The nucleus of that effort is an e-mail database of more than 10 million supporters. The list is considered so valuable that the Obama camp briefly offered it as collateral during a cash-flow crunch late in the campaign, though it wound up never needing the loan, senior aides said."
- "At least 3.1 million people on the list donated money to Obama."
Are the senior aides so tone deaf that they don't realize what it means to use my email address as collateral? Collateral is, in effect, a contingent sale of an asset, in lieu of paying a debt. That means the Obama campaign organization was willing to sell MY EMAIL ADDRESS to banks, rich investors (Mark Rich?), or companies to get more money for his campaign. What's more, they can still do it again at any time in the future. I didn't sign on to a barrage of junk mail when I gave money to the campaign, and I sure wouldn't have given through the internet if I'd known I was creating a tradable asset!
Already, I'm getting pitches from the DNC for money. Were the emails given away to DNC or sold to it? Either way, this is a snarky development. Even Though I'm counting this as disappointment #1, Obama's decision to walk away from public funding in the general election annoyed me. But I became reconciled when I realized the funny money through other sources still flows freely in both parties. Can anyone give me a reason to be reconciled to this news?
Another question I need to research is whether the new http://www.change.gov/ site for the transition (which I advised we use to foil the Larry Summers appointment) is just another asset development project for future Obama or democratic campaigns.
What to do? At the very least, you can mark all future Obama campaign emails and DNC emails as "junk". (I've done that.) Any other ideas for how to make sure political use of the internet doesn't become commercial use of political support? Feel free to leave a comment below (even if, or especially if, you disagree!), or email me at jwagner@bethesda20817.net to continue the discussion off-line.
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3 comments:
It doesn't bother me unless they are selling my address to a commercial establishment. Places like MoveOn, the DNC, Doctors without Borders, and Save Darfur already have my address, and, as you point out, it is easy enough to mark messages for the junk folder.
The buying and selling of lists is a huge business. Why would you be surprised that a list like this would be an asset-- especially to liberal causes? Not really a great list for financial planners, though.
Have you taken a look at the privacy policy on BarackObama.com? It says this right at the top:
"It is our general policy not to make Personal Information available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents. We may also make personal information available to organizations with similar political viewpoints and objectives, in furtherance of our own political objectives."
However, it is interesting to note that the privacy policy is NOT LINKED from the donation page that you get when you first visit the site, so they aren't really informing you of this policy up front.
Judy -- After reading your blog entry, I looked at the privacy policies for change.gov and barackobama.com :
http://www.change.gov/about/privacypolicy
http://www.barackobama.com/privacypolicy/
They are essentially the same and, in my reading, confirm what you and the Washington Post say. The relevant sections are reproduced below. Note that the ability to "opt out" covers ONLY the emails they send, not the potential selling of our names. I think people who don't want their names shared any further should send emails to the addresses noted at the bottom of the two sites' privacy pages asking them NOT to share their personal information beyond what is required by the FEC. In the same email, I urge asking them to revise their privacy policies to include this as an explicit "opt out". Thanks for posting this!
From the www.barackobama.com privacy policy:
" . . . It is our general policy not to make Personal Information available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents. We may also make personal information available to organizations with similar political viewpoints and objectives, in furtherance of our own political objectives.
Online petitions and Personal Information:
We treat your name, city, state, and any comments as public information. We may, for example, provide compilations of petitions, with your comments, to national leaders, without disclosing email addresses. We may also make comments along with your city and state available to the press and public online.
Opting out and modifying information:
Subscribers to our e-mail list may terminate their subscriptions via a link at the bottom of each email sent from BarackObama.com."
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