General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAttn Act Blue
I am a lifelong Democratic supporter, worker, and voter but Act Blues selling of my name and
contact information has made me rethink my position on supporting dems and not one more
penny from me to those shits connected to Act Blue. I block every text I get asking for money from
different democratic candidates. Also the failure of the democrats to call out Trump and Musks
election corruption and interference pisses me off too.
yellow dahlia
(5,043 posts)Is that why we get contacted by so many candidates?
Botany
(76,589 posts)But I might be wrong for the first time in my life.
yellow dahlia
(5,043 posts)There is a plaque in the Dahlia house that says - "Let's assume I'm right, it'll save time".
niyad
(130,201 posts)Lady Violet, "I wouldn't know. I am not familiar with the sensation." Rings briskly for tea.
*Dowager Countess of Grantham.
yellow dahlia
(5,043 posts)Maggie Smith had impeccable delivery.
Bluetus
(2,424 posts)But I am slammed every day by no-name "organizations" that simply say "ICE is killing people. Send us some money." They never say who they are or what my donation might be used for. They are just scams, and they are poisoning the well for all the legitimate candidates that need our support. I don't know if ActBlue is feeding those scammers. Perhaps somebody could invite the head of ActBlue to contribute an article to DU explaining what they really do and what they do with our contact info.
The ACtBlue CEO is Regina Wallace-Jones. It seems like it would be in everyone's interest for her to make a guest appearance at this forum to set the record straight.
yellow dahlia
(5,043 posts)Totally Tunsie
(11,639 posts)Perhaps, if she were to receive thousands of unwanted texts, she's get our message!
Bluetus
(2,424 posts)Why don't you send her a private message and express the concerns, suggesting that she write an article for the DU community to address those concerns? We might find out that those "a friend of a cousin has a co-worker who heard somebody say" rumors aren't really true.
Her FB account is https://www.facebook.com/reginawallacejones/mentions/
progressoid
(52,704 posts)https://www.actblue.com/posts/actblue-takes-action-how-were-protecting-donors-from-deceptive-practices/
yellow dahlia
(5,043 posts)dickthegrouch
(4,363 posts)They went a little further in that government mandated reporting contains a lot of the personal info that we have to give the campaigns and candidates that we donate to.
That information is public.
They don't bother to tell us that.
And they don't apparently prohibit their recipients from mining that publicly available data (as if they could)
It is a MORAL failing of each of those campaigns and causes, and candidates that they assume impunity to solicit us.
I also mark every solicitation as SPAM and delete it.
I got three within 5 minutes from Alexander Vindman this morning.
I got more than 40 a day just prior to the election.
Like you I don't trust any organization or candidate that I've never previously heard of.
There's never been an adequate refutation of The Mothership Vortex fraud exposed last year.
ActBlue and the Candidates are complicit in that.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20544375
quaint
(4,744 posts)It pissed me off so I closed out. Unfortunately, it would not have been my first donation, just the first time I read the small print. At first I tried individually unsubscribing, no luck, now they are *all* spam.
Not certain, but I think ActBlue collects at the direction of the DNC. If they don't need my donation unless I agree to receive 60 emails a day, eff 'em.
end rant
Bluetus
(2,424 posts)I'm not at the point of boycotting ActBlue. On the contrary, this seems to be a truly essential part of the left's financial infrastructure. We need ActBlue to be strong. But they also must be transparent about the use of information.
I would caution that the RW understands how important ActBlue has become and you may be reacting to RW propaganda/gaslighting -- I don't know. I do know that the RW fears the fundraising ActBlue enables so we should all be on teh lookout for misinformation about ActBlue.
Having said all that, I truly despise the 2-10 texts I get for generic-sounding websites every day. They are all of the same form, "Trump is doing {some terrible thing}. Send us some money" I bet 99% of these are scams, and I hope ActBlue is not supplying them the phone numbers.
progressoid
(52,704 posts)We Never Sell Your Information: ActBlue does not sell your contact information to anyone. Ever. When you donate through ActBlue, your information goes directly to the candidate or organization you chose to support. If youre getting unwanted messages from other campaigns, thats because some campaigns share and sell donor information, not because ActBlue sold your data.
https://www.actblue.com/posts/actblue-takes-action-how-were-protecting-donors-from-deceptive-practices/
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/04/the-third-party-brokers-who-make-millions-selling-your-data-to-political-groups/
yellow dahlia
(5,043 posts)KPN
(17,192 posts)as usual.
W_HAMILTON
(10,188 posts)Taken from: https://www.actblue.com/posts/actblue-takes-action-how-were-protecting-donors-from-deceptive-practices/
KPN
(17,192 posts)W_HAMILTON
(10,188 posts)I guess they could instead delete everything they wrote and replace it with a "thank you for being a great fundraising source for Democrats while not selling our information, ActBlue" post...?
KPN
(17,192 posts)as opposed to just the statement that ActBlue sold her info to others?
W_HAMILTON
(10,188 posts)...a tangent about "the failure of the democrats to call out Trump and Musks election corruption and interference," which is also another false claim because nearly every damn Democrat has done that.
So, yeah, better yet, just delete the whole thing.
tritsofme
(19,824 posts)Qutzupalotl
(15,718 posts)Go to https://oath.vote and search for the race you want. They dont spam you or share your info.
Thanks to former DUer brooklynite for the tip.
TomSlick
(12,923 posts)I take Act Blue at its word that it doesn't sell data but campaigns to which I have contributed through Act Blue may.
It's too easy to delete unwanted texts and e-mails to get too wrapped around the axle about it. Given my normal day of dealing with unreasonable clients and lawyers, this is small beer.
James48
(5,122 posts)All of my donations are public information, and is available upon request from the filings of the federal election commission. Many candidates purchase lists of public ally available info.
Ask Open Secrets who are the people who donate in any particular zip code, and you can see all donations and names. In there.
So dont think its Act Blue, per se. There are a ton of places selling your data.
And I get ten texts a day now from Congressional candidates, and even some state level candidates in other states. I ignore 99% of those.
Tribetime
(7,090 posts)Post about an hour after you.Because i've been getting slammed with people asking for money all the time
progressoid
(52,704 posts)Here's a nice deep dive.
How Political Campaigns Use Your Data to Target You
Campaigns also share information about you with other campaigns, so if you register with a candidate one year, it's likely that information goes to another in the future. For example, the website for Adams Schiffs campaign to serve as U.S. Senator from California has a privacy policy with this line under Sharing of Information:
With organizations, candidates, campaigns, groups, or causes that we believe have similar political viewpoints, principles, or objectives or share similar goals and with organizations that facilitate communications and information sharing among such groups
...
These political data brokers make a lot of promises to campaigns. TargetSmart claims to have 171 million highly accurate cell phone numbers, and i360 claims to have data on 220 million voters. They also tend to offer specialized campaign categories that go beyond the offerings of consumer-focused data brokers. Check out data broker L2s National Models & Predictive Analytics page, which breaks down interests, demographics, and political ideologyincluding details like "Voter Fraud Belief," and "Ukraine Continue." The New York Times demonstrated a particularly novel approach to these sorts of profiles where a voter analytics firm created a Covid concern score by analyzing cell phone location, then ranked people based on travel patterns during the pandemic.
Some of these companies target based on location data. For example, El Toro claims to have once identified over 130,000 IP-matched voter homes that met the clients targeting criteria. El Toro served banner and video advertisements up to 3 times per day, per voter household across all devices within the home.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/04/how-political-campaigns-use-your-data-target-you
Tribetime
(7,090 posts)mysteryowl
(8,487 posts)joanbarnes
(2,092 posts)Fichefinder
(402 posts)Tadams01KC
(58 posts)Ive used Act Blue for years and dont recall ever receiving emails asking for other donations or spam. I do not remember opting out or anything like that either. Works fine for me.