ACLU Caught Violating Privacy Rights
by Rich Deem

Promoter of Civil Rights and Privacy Caught Violating Personal Privacy by GodAndScience.org

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the bastion of civil liberties and privacy has been caught violating the privacy of their own e-mail list by this ministry. The ACLU has sold or given their e-mail list to the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL).

How the ACLU was caught

On January 31, 2001, I received an unsolicited e-mail from yesnaral@naralaction.org. What was unusual was that this e-mail was received at my old Cedars-Sinai e-mail address (). This e-mail address is rarely used anymore, since the current e-mail all comes to cshs.org (Cedars-Sinai Health System). However, at one point in the past, I had signed up to receive e-mail updates from the ACLU (to keep track of what the opposition is up to). I used the unusual form of "" to keep track of the ACLU (click to see e-mail header from the ACLU) to determine if they released my e-mail address to somebody else. Sure enough, the e-mail from NARAL was addressed to "". The ACLU has violated my privacy by selling or giving my e-mail address to another organization without my permission.

Who says Christians are the only hypocrites?

Footnote: I confronted the ACLU about this matter on January 31, 2001 and they have failed to respond to my complaints. They are welcome to respond to this page.

The evidence:

E-mail Header from the ACLU

Return-Path: <bounce-action-628763@lists.aclu.org>
Received: from VAX4.CSMC.EDU ([192.203.41.63] verified)
  by ibd10.csmc.edu (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 3.0.1)
  with ESMTP id 230008 for ; Wed, 31 Jan 2001 20:31:20 -0800
Received: from CSMC.EDU by CSMC.EDU (PMDF V5.1-7 #D3494)
 id <01JZKJ5PCGC2975J6I@CSMC.EDU> for ; Wed,
 31 Jan 2001 20:27:30 PST
Received: from ns2.client-mail.com by CSMC.EDU (PMDF V5.1-7 #D3494)
 with SMTP id <01JZKJ5LCBA8975G0V@CSMC.EDU> for deemr; Wed,
 31 Jan 2001 20:27:25 -0800 (PST)
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 16:32:04 -0500
From: owner-action@lists.aclu.org
Subject: 1-31-01 -- ACLU Action Update: Protect Religious Liberty!
To: ACLU Action List <>
Reply-to: owner-action@lists.aclu.org
Message-id:
 <LYRIS-628763-555911-2001.01.31-16.32.08--deemr#csmc.edu@lists.aclu.org>
X-VMS-To: IN%""  "ACLU Action List"
MIME-version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Lyris Web Interface
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:leave-action-628763S@lists.aclu.org>
List-Subscribe: <mailto:subscribe-action@lists.aclu.org>
List-Owner: <mailto:owner-action@lists.aclu.org>
X-List-Host: ACLU <http://www.aclu.org>

E-mail from NARAL

Return-Path: <yesnaral@naralaction.org>
Received: from VAX4.CSMC.EDU ([192.203.41.63] verified)
  by ibd10.csmc.edu (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 3.0.1)
  with ESMTP id 230007 for ; Wed, 31 Jan 2001 17:27:43 -0800
Received: from CSMC.EDU by CSMC.EDU (PMDF V5.1-7 #D3494)
 id <01JZKCR744IQ975EHV@CSMC.EDU> for ; Wed,
 31 Jan 2001 17:24:00 PST
Received: from tim (ns1.ctsg.com) by CSMC.EDU (PMDF V5.1-7 #D3494)
 with ESMTP id <01JZKCR3JIW0975FAU@CSMC.EDU> for deemr; Wed,
 31 Jan 2001 17:23:56 -0800 (PST)
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 17:23:56 -0800 (PST)
Date-warning: Date header was inserted by CSMC.EDU
From: yesnaral@naralaction.org
Subject: Opt in for Choice (Please REPLY)
To: "
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE

A woman's right to choose is under attack in unprecedented fashion
in  the United States.  During his first week in office, George W.
Bush took a firm stand against reproductive freedom by nominating 
anti-choice John Ashcroft to be the nation's Attorney General and 
reinstating  the Global "Gag" rule prohibiting US aid to family 
planning clinics abroad that use their own funds to advocate for or 
counsel on abortion.  President Bush is eager to sign the 
anti-choice legislation that President Clinton has blocked for the 
past 8 years, and the anti-choice leadership of the House and the 
Senate stand ready to pass that legislation once again. Only the 
people's voice can stop our choice from being taken away, by 
telling our individual elected representatives to vote to protect 
a woman's right to choose.

Are you willing to speak up?

Just **REPLY** to this email message and NARAL's Choice Action 
Network (CAN) will send you email alerts to let you know when a 
message to your elected officials will do the most good.  And we'll 
make it easy  for you to send a pre-written fax or email to your 
representatives.  You can also register for CAN and take action at 
our web site, http://www.naral.org/subscribe/index.html.  Just 
enter your email address, and click "submit," and we will continue 
to provide you with up-to-date information and quick, easy ways to 
protect the right to choose.

Over the past two years, CAN members have helped stop anti-choice 
legislation, promoted pro-choice reforms, and turned out crowds for 
educational events and rallies.  CAN members receive alerts with 
simple ways to take action about twice a month -- when their 
actions will have the greatest impact.

If your name was added to this list in error, we sincerely 
apologize.  Due to the importance of the recent elections, NARAL 
contracted with a vendor to create an opt in email list so that we 
could contact supporters quickly and efficiently.  We now have 
reason to doubt whether the vendor followed best practices for 
ensuring that our supporters' privacy concerns were taken into 
consideration.  If you do not want to be on our email list, please 
accept our apologies.  You need do nothing - we will not email you 
again.

Please email Involved@naralaction.org with any comments, questions, 
or suggestions you might have.  Go to 
http://www.naral.org/about/privacy_can.html to view our email 
privacy policy.

Thank you,

Choice Action Network
National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League
www.naral.org

http://www.godandscience.org/general/aclu.html
Last updated March 31, 2008

 

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