impact

And step 2 for MySpace in the Presidential Primary Social Networking Extravaganza is to bank on the fundraising apparatus and all the great bugaboos that go along with it namely tracking names, commitments, and all other personal information for a given donor that is identifying him or herself with a given candidate.

I have to admit when ActBlue first started, as a campaign person I was terrified about the idea of going through a 3rd party with our fundraising. Someone other than us would have copies of our lists, our donors, their personal information, and anyone who worked there or interned might have access to mountains of personal data about our contributors.

Over time with more use of ActBlue I became a little more relaxed mostly because it was a clearly partisan organization. Opposition was not a threat. Last cycle I read their Privacy Policy over and over and over again before I finally started to learn how I could use it to my own benefit.
“Other than as described above, we will not use your personal information nor release it to any other party without your permission, unless we believe it is necessary to share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, violations of our terms of use, or as otherwise required by law.”

Where MySpace differs is that they are playing both sides of the fence, they are owned by a confessed conservative, and they aren’t in it to help candidates fundraise from the grassroots like ActBlue but rather

“to track and monitor online donations made to presidential candidates through its MySpace subsidiary, giving the media group an increasingly prominent role in the 2008 presidential election.” Financial Times