Attn Act Blue

[Botany]

I am a lifelong Democratic supporter, worker, and voter but Act Blue’s 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 Musk’s
election corruption and interference pisses me off too.

[yellow dahlia]

1. Does Act Blue provide our contact info to other candidates?

Is that why we get contacted by so many candidates?

[Botany]

2. I believe they sell our information to other candidates.

But I might be wrong for the first time in my life.

[yellow dahlia]

3. That gets a big old laugh out of me.

There is a plaque in the Dahlia house that says - "Let's assume I'm right, it'll save time".

[niyad]

15. Isabel Crawley to Lady Violet*, "How you hate to be wrong."

Lady Violet, "I wouldn't know. I am not familiar with the sensation." Rings briskly for tea.

*Dowager Countess of Grantham.

[yellow dahlia]

25. Yes. A fabulous character.

Maggie Smith had impeccable delivery.

[Bluetus]

6. If it were just candidates, maybe I could live with that.

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]

10. Interesting. Thanks for the info.

[Totally Tunsie]

28. We need to find out Wallace-Jones' number and text her our disapproval.

Perhaps, if she were to receive thousands of unwanted texts, she's get our message!

[Bluetus]

29. We don't know the facts. We should not assume the worst. She has a facebook account

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]

9. No, they don't

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 you’re getting unwanted messages from other campaigns, that’s 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/

[yellow dahlia]

11. Hmmm. Yet more information.

[dickthegrouch]

13. That's the letter I received too

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. I seem to remember some small print saying I agree to blah blah.

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]

5. I agree we deserve to know what ActBlue does with our info

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]

7. They don't sell your name. But lots of other people do including the DNC

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 you’re getting unwanted messages from other campaigns, that’s 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/

The third-party brokers who make millions selling your data to political groups

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/04/the-third-party-brokers-who-make-millions-selling-your-data-to-political-groups/

[yellow dahlia]

12. Thanks for more follow up.

[KPN]

17. Thanks prigressoid ... you bring useful facts once again...

as usual.

[W_HAMILTON]

8. Please retract your OP because it is incorrect.

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 you’re getting unwanted messages from other campaigns, that’s because some campaigns share and sell donor information, not because ActBlue sold your data.

Taken from: https://www.actblue.com/posts/actblue-takes-action-how-were-protecting-donors-from-deceptive-practices/

[KPN]

18. Retract? Edit would be sufficient, no?

[W_HAMILTON]

24. Edit it with what? The point was to blame and criticize ActBlue for something they don't actually even do.

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]

30. She said a couple other things in the post. So to be clear, you want Botany to retract everything he or she wrote,

as opposed to just the statement that ActBlue sold her info to others?

[W_HAMILTON]

31. It was all about criticism stemming from an entirely false claim and...

...a tangent about "the failure of the democrats to call out Trump and Musk’s 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]

26. Who could have imagined? Another silly conspiracy theory attacking Democrats! lol

[Qutzupalotl]

14. There's a better way to donate.

Go to https://oath.vote and search for the race you want. They don’t spam you or share your info.

Thanks to former DUer brooklynite for the tip.

[TomSlick]

16. I get e-mails from Democrats looking for money and daily texts purporting to be from Mark Kelly.

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]

19. I know this-

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 don’t think it’s 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]

20. Recommended , I posted something similar without even seeing your

Post about an hour after you.Because i've been getting slammed with people asking for money all the time

[mysteryowl]

21. Were they hacked? Does our criminal federal goverment have something to do with it?

[joanbarnes]

22. ditto

[Fichefinder]

23. If you are happy withTrump, keep your money in your pocket.

[Tadams01KC]

27. My experience

I’ve used Act Blue for years and don’t 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.