This being the gift-giving season, let me share a recent experience. So...my wife saw a bunch of Oprah shows about Darfur and other make-you-want-to-ball-your-eyes-out stuff, and she decided to pick a couple charities and throw some money their way. Fast-forward about 3 weeks and we're getting several pieces of junk mail EVERY SINGLE day from various charities begging for money. "Emergency situation!" "People in crisis!" "Genital cutting!" "Sign this petition to Condolezza Rice, oh yeah and send us money while you're at it!" "Here are your prayer flags!" Man, we've got free address labels coming out the ears!
I've been able to identify the party responsible because of a mistake in the format of my wife's name that all the junk mail is addressed to. I sent them a mild nastygram but really there is no recourse. Their privacy policy states something like "from time to time we may share your personal information with other charitable partners for mutual benefit." So now the fight that I have to fight is to get us off of all the contact lists.
Do yourself a favor - if you're feeling charitable, don't even bother reading the privacy policy. Be direct and specify along with your donation that you don't want your information shared, or send them an e-mail specifically asking to be removed from their lists.
/end rant.
I've been able to identify the party responsible because of a mistake in the format of my wife's name that all the junk mail is addressed to. I sent them a mild nastygram but really there is no recourse. Their privacy policy states something like "from time to time we may share your personal information with other charitable partners for mutual benefit." So now the fight that I have to fight is to get us off of all the contact lists.
Do yourself a favor - if you're feeling charitable, don't even bother reading the privacy policy. Be direct and specify along with your donation that you don't want your information shared, or send them an e-mail specifically asking to be removed from their lists.
/end rant.
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