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Brady Campaign selling its mailing lists
Joe Huffman makes an interesting discovery on the web: Brady Campaign is selling its mailing list. And it's only got 50,000 names (only 28,000 of whom have donated or otherwise responded in the last year, if I read it correctly), rather than the 500,000 to which Brady has laid claim.
Icing on the cake: Kurt Hoffman points out that on its webpage, Brady Campaign promised donors and activists that "the Brady Campaign and the Brady Center will not sell your name or e-mail address to spammers or share it with unaffiliated groups."
Perhaps they figure that it isn't "sharing" if you sell it for cold cash, or else they are getting so desperate that promises mean less than income. Does anyone know if there is a binding standard for internet privacy, when promises are made or a policy stated?
Comments
Wasn't there an issue back in the 90s regarding the membership for Handgun Control Inc. They used to run a banner over the top of their web page that stated that they were a million strong and growing. Then after five years, and 1994, some congress people noted the fact that the banner was sill the same, but the footer on official news releases listed membership at only 600,000.
Posted by: James Gibson at June 12, 2010 04:23 PM
Well, they were growing, i.e., growing smaller and smaller.
Posted by: Ken at June 13, 2010 06:42 AM
It's a direct mailing list, not an email list.
Technically this is not selling the addresses because mailing is done via bonded method e.g. Sponsor prepares 50k articles for mailout then a bonded mailing house gets 50k addresses from Brady, but the sponsor never gets to see the addresses.
It's a legal technicality used by many charities to raise money. I believe the NRA does the same thing.
http://www.thehighroad.us/archive/index.php/t-205281.html
Posted by: Ash at June 13, 2010 11:27 AM
Do buyers pay extra for the Jewish and Catholic names? Or does that cover the extra postage to my new address in Poland?
Posted by: mike from philly at June 13, 2010 01:26 PM