Traditional dining petition

[CTANut]

This is a petition to bring back the traditional dining cars on ALL overnight trains, and trains longer than 500 miles. It is over a year old, but it could use more signatures.
https://www.change.org/p/tell-amtra...oter_petition_id=21504525&grid_position=8&pt=

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Signed.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

While I am not against the petition, IMHO, there is little hope that it will actually change anything.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Funny how signing a petition is useless but dissuading people from participating is somehow worth the effort.
I always wonder what the naysayers did with the alternative five seconds that brought so much more success.

 

[me_little_me]

Unfortunately, it's just another private company looking to collect personal information on you and sell it to others to enrich the executives. Best to send your own petition to congress and Amtrak execs.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Unfortunately, it's just another private company looking to collect personal information on you and sell it to others to enrich the executives.

Change.org still claims they do not sell your data but you obviously have evidence to the contrary and I'd like to help fix this. Where can I find this information so I get it to the right people and they can't keep getting away with it?

 

[MARC Rider]

Change.org still claims they do not sell your data but you obviously have evidence to the contrary and I'd like to help fix this. Where can I find this information so I get it to the right people and they can't keep getting away with it?

What data? All they asked for was your name, email address, and your state/city (not your physical address.) I was connecting through my VPN, so I guess they think I'm in London, or something. If they want to sell that, well, they're not the only people to have done so.

 

[Qapla]

Maybe a class action law suit would get more attention/results than a petition ... just a thought

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

What data? All they asked for was your name, email address, and your state/city (not your physical address.) I was connecting through my VPN, so I guess they think I'm in London, or something. If they want to sell that, well, they're not the only people to have done so.

It is also the implied data like that you enjoy train travel, and possibly travel in general. Oh, and that you like good (restaurant?) food. Worthy info for targeted mailings, emailings, and relentless telemarketing.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

What data? All they asked for was your name, email address, and your state/city (not your physical address.) I was connecting through my VPN, so I guess they think I'm in London, or something. If they want to sell that, well, they're not the only people to have done so.

Beats me man but I'm not the one with compelling evidence gathered through advanced counterintelligence.

It is also the implied data like that you enjoy train travel, and possibly travel in general. Oh, and that you like good (restaurant?) food. Worthy info for targeted mailings, emailings, and relentless telemarketing.

I get so much spam marketing from private passenger railroads I wonder why we even need Amtrak anymore.

 

[Lonestar648]

Signed.

 

[me_little_me]

Change.org still claims they do not sell your data but you obviously have evidence to the contrary and I'd like to help fix this. Where can I find this information so I get it to the right people and they can't keep getting away with it?

Read their privacy policy - particularly where it says what happens if they get bought out.

Sale or merger of our company: We have no plans to sell our business. In this unlikely event, we may use, disclose, or transfer your personal information to a third party if we or any of our company affiliates are involved in a corporate restructuring (e.g., a sale, merger, or other transfer of assets, including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).

Change.org is a global organisation. Your personal information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers, and by using the platform you consent to the transfer of your personal information to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have different data protection rules from those of your country. In certain circumstances, courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies, or security authorities in those other countries may be entitled to access your personal information.

So how does a company like change.or make money if they don't charge? They build up a huge database of responders, then they become valuable commodity, not because of the money they make but because of the information they have. So when they sell out to Steal-your-personal-information.com, they collect big bucks than that company now has your information and a totally unrestricted privacy policy. Every single private company I have checked that charges nothing for their services (but I have only checked a portion of them as almost all, I simply don't waste my time) has a similar sellout policy. Some even include not only being bought out but buying out another company. So basically, they can buy a small one-person company that has the weakest possible privacy policy and then immediately change their rules.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

So you're extremely concerned about what change.org might do but also perfectly fine with handing the same data to Amtrak Unlimited? How are they different? Maybe you should start a petition on website privacy rules.

 

[20th Century Rider]

This is a petition to bring back the traditional dining cars on ALL overnight trains, and trains longer than 500 miles. It is over a year old, but it could use more signatures.
https://www.change.org/p/tell-amtra...oter_petition_id=21504525&grid_position=8&pt=

I signed it too... hope the petition helps but with all that is going on now the government is prioritizing saving lives and getting the economy up and running... including food to those who are starving and shelter to those who are homeless!

 

[Dakota 400]

I signed, then went to a page that wanted $$. I left the site.

 

[tim49424]

These petitions extremely rarely work. Pass.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I signed, then went to a page that wanted $$. I left the site.

Ditto!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I signed, then went to a page that wanted $$. I left the site.

Your signature still counts whether you contribute or not. The free lunch websites of the 1990's are long gone and now you either get advertising, a paywall, or a donation request. Honestly 150,000+ signatures is pretty good IMO.

 

[cirdan]

What data? All they asked for was your name, email address, and your state/city (not your physical address.) I was connecting through my VPN, so I guess they think I'm in London, or something. If they want to sell that, well, they're not the only people to have done so.

I have signed change.org petitions in the past and have since then been receiving spam email from other political activism platforms, including some rather unpleasant extremist stuff.

I'm pretty sure change.org is at the root of it as this is an email address I don't use very much and that previously I never got any spam on.

But I guess now that they have me anyway, there is no harm in signing one more petition.

 

[tim49424]

I have signed change.org petitions in the past and have since then been receiving spam email from other political activism platforms, including some rather unpleasant extremist stuff.

I'm pretty sure change.org is at the root of it as this is an email address I don't use very much and that previously I never got any spam on.

My late mother and I had the same experience. Another good reason for me not signing.

 

[20th Century Rider]

My late mother and I had the same experience. Another good reason for me not signing.

Very creepy indeed. Anything else I get from them will go to spam and trash!

 

[tim49424]

Very creepy indeed. Anything else I get from them will go to spam and trash!

I ended up changing my email address. My mom chose not to and deal with all the spam. Lesson learned.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Online petitions rarely work. I don't waste my time with them.

These petitions extremely rarely work. Pass.

My late mother and I had the same experience. Another good reason for me not signing.

I ended up changing my email address.

You've told this story before but you never explain why would you need to change your email if you never signed.

 

[me_little_me]

For those foolish enough to put their main (or a heavily used) email address at every Tom, Dick, and Harry site, may I suggest you look into disposable email addresses.
Just for the places I trust, I have at least 15-20 email aliases (based on who they are such as friends, financial, government, businesses I often deal with, medical, places I volunteer at, non-profits, etc). Then for everyone else, I use individual disposable emails that route messages from that site and forward them to yet another alias. I use hundreds of these and I can autofill one into any new site at any time with a few clicks. Each one can be temporarily disabled or permanently removed upon receipt of an email from that site with two clicks (delete then confirm) or by going to the privacy site and selecting those to disable/delete.
I don't even give my real email address out to my friends - just another alias reserved for friends I know. The only one that has the real email is myself and my mail provider. For $3/month they give me full privacy and no ads.
I also use an ad blocker, a VPN, and I open all sites in private windows then close them before going to other sites unless I need to be logged in to both simultaneously in which case I use individual private tabs. Even then, I clear cookies on any Youtube/Google/yahoo site constantly even while they are in use.
I use no social media and block their cookies.

 

[20th Century Rider]

All of us on this forum need to be careful about action sites that take positions on issues. Especially if we don't know background and legitimacy of such sites.