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Political Breath on Campaign Etiquette: DO NOT STEAL E-MAIL ADDRESSES

by | 3:51 pm, June 22, 2010 | 2 Comments

There are not a lot of absolutely black and white rules in activism. It tends to be a world where judgment plays a huge role.

Be that as it may, PB is getting more than a little tired of unsubscribing – over and over – from lists we never subscribed to. This is the result of the utterly uncouth and tacky habit too many people are picking up of taking e-mails anywhere they can get them and bypassing the entire process of, you know, talking to potential supporters.

We are also appalled at the practice of trading contact information for favors or of outright selling lists.

Fine, you have access to a slew of e-mails. We get it. But do not decide for other people what they would like to have clogging their inboxes. Politics takes work, such as building your own e-mail list.

People are not so stupid as to forget what they have and have not subscribed to. Nor is it nearly a sure thing they will share your conclusion that your campaign is so brilliant they just must be getting endless e-mails about it.

In fact, and we are most certainly not jesting, if you misuse information a donor or supporter provided to a foundation or a non-profit, you may face penalties including termination and damages to those whose information you took.

Be professional and do the leg work to build your own list. This is time well spent. The list someone else has compiled, even if it’s still timely and accurate, represents people who personally supported that candidate or that issue. We don’t advise that you guess where they’ll come down on an entirely different race.

Additionally, someone else may get in a lot of trouble for having robo-calls and political solicitations come through to e-mail addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, etc. that are paid for by their employer. How would any of you like to get read the riot act by your boss and spend the rest of the fiscal year because some bozo decided to add your work e-mail to a partisan campaign?

As always, this is a matter of respecting those around you and taking care of your own reputation.

It’s quite simple; here you go:

1. Do not export your own, or anyone’s, entire contact list and subscribe it to your campaign or to any list.

2. Do not give, sell, or barter e-mail addresses or other contact information.

3. Once you have your own e-mail list, do not make it available. It consists of other peoples’ private contact information and was given to you with the understanding that it would not be handed out, or sold, to anyone else.

4. Pay attention to your unsubscribe notifications. When PB has to unsubscribe multiple times because the list isn’t being updated or because requests are being ignored, we get very angry very quickly. And you’d better believe we remember the offending candidates and campaigns.

Next time, we are publishing the names, URLs, and webmasters of all the issue campaigns and candidates who don’t respect this rule.

If you’re getting spammed, let us know.

And if you’ve got comments, ideas, questions, and thoughts about manners and helpful hints for grassroots activists, tell us all about it at politicalbreath@gmail.com.

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Category: 2010, Elections, Featured

Comments

  1.   Griffin
      June 22nd, 2010 @ 5:43 pm

    Please tell Ken Buck to stop stealing county GOP email addresses. I keep getting his emails when I did not sign up for his list.

  2.   Laura
      June 24th, 2010 @ 9:40 am

    Griffin, What is your stake in the Norton campaign, you are so focused on painting Ken Buck as a “bad person” that you tell only half of the truth. You want readers to believe that the Buck campaign is the only one sending out emails. As an American use your freedom to choose and hit the delete key.

    I am a Ken Buck supporter and volunteer and I get emails from the Norton and McInnis campaign and I did not sign up, EVER, to get email messages from those campaigns. I have used my delete key on a daily basis.

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