I always sign up for email lists using fake names so I can figure out who sold me like a piece of meat if I end up on someone else’s list. And I’m now getting emails from Harry Reid using the name I gave to Markey. Shame on you, Senator. As the former chair of the House Telecommunications Committee, you of all people should respect consumer privacy.
Please share widely!
Christopher says
…and I’m not even sure the list was literally sold for money so much as traded for assistance from the DSCC. I’m pretty sure that’s how it works – if you get assistance from the DSCC they add your database to theirs, which they in turn let other Senate candidates use. It’s no surprise that Harry Reid as Senate Dem Leader has access to this list. What I have found, though, is that campaigns are generally pretty good at honoring unsubscribe requests.
kirth says
If they’ve shared him with others (which he won’t know until they start sending him stuff), he’ll have to send out more requests. It’s not right to put the burden on him. Markey and others should assume people don’t want their information shared, rather than assuming they don’t care.
petr says
…”Seamus Romney” (almost certainly itself a pseudonym… one hopes) didn’t say “shared”, he said “sold” which suggests a more… mercenary… approach.
It’s, also, entirely possible that Harry Reid doesn’t know “Seamus Romney” from a hole in the ground and that the email in question is simply a forward that someone in Ed Markey’s office thought might be of interest to a mailing list for which they alone have the keys… We really don’t know.
All we really know is that “Seamus Romney” wants to make hay with his assumptions…. yawn.
Christopher says
…but it’s not that much of a burden to click unsubscribe when you get an email from a new candidate. I do it all the time.
Kosta Demos says
Still, I am ambivalent about the list sharing stuff. On the one hand, I’m glad that like-minded candidates and organizations are exploiting all possible ways to share resources for outreach. On the other hand, my inbox gets crammed so quickly with redundant candidate/party/advocacy fundraising email that lately I’ve found myself grabbing and dumping stuff unread. That’s not good.
Anyone have ideas about how to save on-line advocacy from it’s own sheer fecundity?
JMGreene says
was one of the original innovations of Deval Patrick’s first campaign, allegedly the idea of then senior advisor David Plouffe.
Christopher says
…the Patrick campaign being more sensitive and careful than most.
JMGreene says
was a huge part of the campaigns digital organizing toolbox. The campaign would build e-mail lists with a variety of events and vendors, and was aggressive in building their own by attaching the campaign to local Democratic affiliated events.
Kosta Demos says
Part of what made Patrick’s digital campaign wing so effective was that it gave you a measure of control. It came across as enticing, rather than coercive.
merrimackguy says
I am unsubscribing all the time.
SomervilleTom says
Full disclosure — I work for an identity-theft protection company.
It is embarrassing that there is no legal statement about privacy or handling of personally identifiable information (PII) on the signup page of Mr. Markey’s senate website.
In today’s world, that should accompany EVERY such request. Allowing a confirmed email address (it’s given twice) to be associated with a physical address and a name — and not offering assurances that such linkage will be kept private — is a dangerous security hole.
Here’s how the black-hat world uses such things. Through pretty much ANY ruse (I doubt that it’s very hard to get those lists from Mr. Markey), I obtain and preserve the supplied information. Then I go searching through everything I can find — legal and otherwise — for any records matching that address. There are several commercial aggregators who will, for a fee, sell a perfectly legal list of social security numbers associated with a given address.
What the black hat ends up with is YOUR email address, YOUR name, YOUR address, and several SSNs that almost certainly includes YOUR SSN. Unless you are unusually disciplined, the black hat will be able to collect the passwords you generally use for online accounts. For too many of those sites, that password will be plain-text (not encrypted). You, OF COURSE, use a different password for each site, right?
These are all the ingredients needed for the black hat to steal you blind — or worse.
Mr. Markey (and every other site operator) should THINK ABOUT what they do with PII, how they protect it, and why they need it.
John Tehan says
It’s here:
http://www.edmarkey.com/privacy-policy/
You’re right, it should be linked or explained on the signup page, but is it legally required to be there? And, as far as sharing the information is concerned, here’s what the privacy policy says:
Note the part I bolded – if you were concerned about them sharing your info, you should have looked at the privacy policy, which is linked at the bottom of every page on the site. This post is a tempest in a teapot.
John Tehan says
That should say “if Seamus was concerned about them sharing his info, he should have looked at the privacy policy”, not “if you were concerned about them sharing your info, you should have looked at the privacy policy”
SomervilleTom says
I was commenting on the signup page itself, not making a judgement about it.
You raise a fascinating point when ask if it’s a legal requirement. My understanding is that it is not (at least directly), and I think that’s likely to change. As our legal system evolves to reflect the reality of how PII is abused, I think we’re likely to see such disclosures be required by law.
In the meantime, my perception is that market forces are already getting us there.
SomervilleTom says
I’d like to note that my comments refer to the signup page of Mr. Markey’s senate website. The link you posted is to a campaign website.
If there is a privacy policy page on the Senate website, I am unable to find it.