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[IP] Nettle vs ACLU -- great news




Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2003 14:26:56 -0800
From: Brian Dear <brian@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Nettle vs ACLU -- great news
X-Sender: birdrock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx


Dave,

I'm very happy to announce that my battle with the ACLU is over, and the ACLU has implemented changes to their website just like I recommended.

Back in September and October, I began a series of commentaries about one person's experience signing up as a new member of the ACLU. I'd used their website to sign up, and was shocked to find my mailbox full of junk parcels, flyers, and personalized merchandise from dozens of nonprofit organizations like People for the American Way, Sierra Club, Americans for This, Americans for That, yadda yadda. I complained to the ACLU, having suspected that they had given out my contact info.

They denied it. I investigated. I proved that they had. They admitted it. They promised they wouldn't any more. But to this day I still get junk mail because ACLU gave out my name and address without my permission.

So I wrote about the situation on my Nettle.com blog:

 http://www.nettle.com/archives/000059.html  and
 http://www.nettle.com/archives/000060.html

and began a public correspondence with Anthony Romero, Exec Dir of ACLU, and Nadine Stossen, President of ACLU. Nadine promised they'd take action. I told her if they fixed the signup page on ACLU's website so that people could opt-out of ACLU's personal-info-sharing, I'd renew my membership.

Well, Nadine kept her end of the bargain. Here's a screen-grab of their new signup page:

   http://www.nettle.com/archives/000065.html

And my check to the ACLU goes out in today's mail!

Blogs DO make a difference.

- Brian


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