Support your candidate online - lose your privacy?

The old "gold standard" for campaign data were voter registration lists and campaign contributors lists.

It suddenly struck me that the new data "gold standard" for political campaigning are the email lists that each campaign is building. While you may sign up to support your favorite Presidential hopeful, you may be signing up for more than you bargained for.

If you read the fine print in the Privacy policy, you might come across something like this: (example taken from the Barack Obama website).

"It is our general policy not to make Personal Information available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents. We may also make personal information available to organizations with similar political viewpoints and objectives, in furtherance of our own political objectives."

I suspect that candidates will profit handsomely from the lists that we've been so willing to help build. How much is it worth ($$$) to a future candidate to use Barack's supporters email database list for a future election?

When all the dust settles, and a new President has been selected, your email address will remain in the files of the candidate, unless "sold/rented/given" to his/her successor. So while your intention may have been to support a single candidate in the upcoming elections get ready, because in Dec 2008, you may start receiving unsolicited emails from the 2012 candidates!

Better learn how to use your spam filter now.