Thanksgiving - no donation this year

CShell said:
and was (also) prompted for monthly - buy I said no and then paid with the Paypal as well.
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I find it's annoying desparate begging if one asks again when you already said 'no.'
But that was kind of acceptble, if it was just so. You have to deal with rose-sellers all the time.
But it's not.
CShell said:
But reads like they asked a few more questions than usual in this case?
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Nope. They don't ask 'a few more question'. They ask for EVERYTHING: name, surname, e-mail address, complete snail address: street, town, postal code, plus telefonnumber, and if you're occupied.
And that's not just asked optionally for you may give those, or some of this information freely, if you want to, or not. No, they are all mandatory.
You have to give them your whole (true) personal identy - for doing a donation of about 50 bucks?
Sorry, but to me that's a no go.
screenshot.JPG

But if I am the only 'old man yelling at clouds' because of that, and everybody else is fine with that, I guess the foundation can pass on my few bucks in the future. Okay. Proceed!
Than we can close this thread.
 
Maturin said:
I find it's annoying desparate begging if one asks again when you already said 'no.'
But that was kind of acceptble, if it was just so. You have to deal with rose-sellers all the time.
But it's not.

Nope. They don't ask 'a few more question'. They ask for EVERYTHING: name, surname, e-mail address, complete snail address: street, town, postal code, plus telefonnumber, and if you're occupied.
And that's not just asked optionally for you may give those, or some of this information freely, if you want to, or not. No, they are all mandatory.
You have to give them your whole (true) personal identy - for doing a donation of about 50 bucks?
Sorry, but to me that's a no go.
View attachment 24256
But if I am the only 'old man yelling at clouds' because of that, and everybody else is fine with that, I guess the foundation can pass on my few bucks in the future. Okay. Proceed!
Than we can close this thread.
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Have you sent an email to the foundation stating your objections and pointing out how asking for unnecessary details can stop people from donating? That might have more of an effect than posting here.
 
I recommend communication with Deb.

They are using a third party service. For all we know that service changes the forms around without the Foundation noticing. They wouldn't know until somebody tells them.

As for the address requirement, that is probably a hard one as long as it is a US nonprofit. Maybe there can be a European organization for European donations.
 
From https://hbkcpa.com/insights/donor-data-a-complex-issue/

It’s important to know if your organization might need to disclose donor information. Some organizations are required to file a Schedule B with their Form 990, 990 EZ, or 990PF, including:

  • Organizations described under Section 501(c)(3)
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…
An organization must keep its donors’ names and addresses in its records and make them available to the IRS in the event of an examination.
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bakul said:
That might have more of an effect than posting here.
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Well its good they are bringing it up now. The holidays are a time when I give. Better now this comes out than End of December.

When I have to give my employment status and employer to DonorBox and their 4.5% cut, that they also want me to foot, I get a bit grouchy.
For me I used paypal and they sent me a 2FA message and I have never provided paypal with a phone number and have avoided it for 20 years.
Now they have my number and trying to force 2FA on me.
I don't need them. Flushed transaction.
Sad times. I tried. So much internet SLOP pressed on us.

I have a month and will mail them a check. That works for me. I still mail many of my monthy bills. My december mailing will include my favorite cause.

I appreciate all Deb does and just managing donations could be a full time job. You must have an electronic assistant to manage donations. Good or bad.
 
Maturin said:
But if I am the only 'old man yelling at clouds' because of that, and everybody else is fine with that, I guess the foundation can pass on my few bucks in the future. Okay. Proceed!
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No, you are not alone. I donate a lot of my time to this, and I would also not donate a single cent when those questions would appear. Maybe we should all agree to a person to use there, like Sneaky Daemon, living West Addison 1060, ...
 
Phishfry said:
So much internet SLOP pressed on us.
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It's not the Internet that's dumping this crap on us. The smart decision makers (humans in the management) are those accountable for this SLOP.

For those going to mail a check to The FreeBSD Foundation:
1. Address it to Anne Dickison personally.
2. Enclose a letter with your donation, maybe written by hand but still readable.
3. (optional) specify on what your contribution should be spent on.
4. Ask for a reply!
 
Crivens said:
No, you are not alone. I donate a lot of my time to this, and I would also not donate a single cent when those questions would appear. Maybe we should all agree to a person to use there, like Sneaky Daemon, living West Addison 1060, ...
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If you donate by credit card you probably have to use your true address.
 
cracauer@ said:
They are using a third party service. For all we know that service changes the forms around without the Foundation noticing. They wouldn't know until somebody tells them.
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I agree with this though someone at the Foundation should be checking it before it goes online.

That said, I don't let these things bother me. The Foundation is a trusted organization and I'm unconcerned they will do something nefarious with it.
 
drhowarddrfine said:
I agree with this though someone at the Foundation should be checking it before it goes online.

That said, I don't let these things bother me. The Foundation is a trusted organization and I'm unconcerned they will do something nefarious with it.
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What I'm saying is that the first party service might change the form without notice to their customer.

And they might have some rights to the data collected.
 
Maturin said:
But if I am the only 'old man yelling at clouds' because of that, and everybody else is fine with that, I guess the foundation can pass on my few bucks in the future. Okay. Proceed!
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LOL - no you have a point :) -- No should mean NO ! I thought it was "pushy" as well to have asked a second time. That is definitely NOT how I would have written the web site.

They do need "some" information so that State's citizens can work with their tax deductions.
 
CShell said:
hey do need "some" information so that State's citizens can work with their tax deductions.
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That's a very good point. The problem starts to come with "global". Global users of FreeBSD wanting to donate, each locale having unique requirements on information.
As others have said US laws around organizations have requirements needed for tax deductability. If I give X to FreeBSD, it can reduce my taxes owed to the government by X. Sometimes the employer matters because of "what" they do.

For me, ask legal minimum based on my donation area
 
drhowarddrfine said:
a trusted organization
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That one doesn't hold anymore since MasterCard managed to dump one of their customer databases into the darknet. (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...ports-data-breach-to-german-and-belgian-dpas/)

Now the rule is: anything you type into a browser might sooner or later end up anywhere, and there is no way to hinder that after the fact.
Repeat this to your responsible politicians as often as you can, until they get it. This is just like nuclear energy: as long as all goes well, it goes well - but once the spill is out, there is no way to put it back in.
 
Under US law, any charity nonprofit such as the FreeBSD Foundation that operates under section 501(c)(3) has to keep complete records of donations. That is generally understood to mean identity of the donor, which usually means name and address. Those records have to be kept for a number of years, and can be inspected by the tax authority (IRS and state tax agencies). For donations of $250 and more, the nonprofit has to mail an acknowledgement of the donation to the donor, including its own tax ID number; that automatically means that an anonymous donation of $250 or more is de-facto impossible. If the nonprofit is involved in politics, lobbying, or campaigning, then under federal and state election laws it has to record full name, job, and name of the employer (if any) for donations of $100 or more, and disclose those publicly in its campaign filings. Otherwise, donations of $5000 or more need to be disclosed in its annual tax return, but those no longer need to be released to the public (that's schedule B of form 990).

Note that much of that applies, independent of whether the donation is tax deductible to the donor or not. For example, donations to nonprofits operating under section 501(c)(4), and to political campaigns that are not also charities, are not tax deductible, but they still need to do the same record keeping and disclosure rules.

Because of the record keeping and disclosure requirements, it is virtually impossible to hide donations in the US from the tax authorities. Using chains of non-profits and corporations, it is possible to make it difficult for the general public to figure out who donated what; but experienced journalists and government agencies can often punch through that veil. It is generally much better to disclose absolutely everything to the public, so there are no surprises. For example, I used to explicitly prohibit anonymous donations when I ran such groups; and while some people tried to make donations of $99 to keep their identify out of the very visible political campaign reports, I voluntarily published complete lists of all donations, and warned donors about that ahead of time.

Source: I have been the treasurer of various political campaigns in the US, and my wife a board member of various nonprofits.
 
PMc said:
That one doesn't hold anymore since MasterCard managed to dump one of their customer databases into the darknet.
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The description "managed to dump ... into the darknet" insinuates intent. That's paranoia.

Accidents can always happen. A few years ago, someone found a big cardboard box of bank records here in Silicon Valley, near a bank's parking lot. The likely reconstruction is that bank staff had helped load the record boxes into the truck of one of the big document management/destruction companies for some combination of scanning / offsite storage / destruction, and a human error caused one box to be left sitting in the parking lot (maybe it was dark outside, maybe it was raining and the staff wanted to get back inside quickly, maybe the truck driver didn't close the door correctly until the first red traffic light). The box was brought to a journalist, who had the ethics to not publish the content, but instead write a story about how some of the most private and protected form of records can become public by mistake.

When I worked at what is likely the biggest and most respected computer company in the world (acronym stands for "Inferior But Marketable" or "Immense Bowel Movement"), a Human Resources staffer who had an (encrypted) copy of most employee records on their laptop lost that laptop. The story we heard was that they put the laptop on the roof of the car while opening the car door with a coffee cup in their hand, and then forgot the laptop and drove away. We were all warned that our data (which includes social security numbers, bank accounts used for direct deposit, salary ...) might be at risk. Nothing ever happened.

If you want to protect against these extremely rare (and usually harmless) accidents, then you have to remain completely anonymous. Donate to the FreeBSD Foundation by going to their office (it's not in Berkeley but in Boulder, Colorado), wearing a balaclava, dark glasses, and a hat, and leave a small leather satchel of gold nuggets at the front desk. Travel on horseback or by horse-drawn carriage, so your plane ticket or driver's license data doesn't compromise your identity. Loren in the foundation's administration is very friendly, and will be glad to help you ... no, while she REALLY is very friendly, she will probably call the police when she sees you come in dressed like that, and on a horse. And then your arrest record will be all over the internet.

Seriously: Having one's paranoia driven by rare events and unusual crimes is not a good way to live. And an even worse way to give other people advice.
 
ralphbsz said:
Under US law, any charity nonprofit such as the FreeBSD Foundation that operates under section 501(c)(3) has to keep complete records of donations. [...]
Source: I have been the treasurer of various political campaigns in the US, and my wife a board member of various nonprofits.
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That's what I said above: A) for political parties, and their campaigns, and B) more than a certain amount of money (and in my eyes it has to be published, too, which is not always the case.)
But why A) for a non-political, non-profit orga like FreeBSD, and B) already for 50 bucks?

And it must be some new law, because it worked before not a year ago - click on "Donate", name an amount, chose credit card, "thanks", done - or they changed the "money collector".

I had no problems in giving the foundation my name - they have it anyway by my former doantions.
But how I can be sure that those data is not misused in any way - be the donation button is linked to a money collecting service, which sells my data, or some day one BA in the foundation get a great idea:"Hey, do you know how we could make some more bucks?"
Again: I have no problem to give some of my data to the foundation - But to give EVERYTHING, reveal my whole true personal identity with snail address and telefonnumber into some unkown pot?
No, Sir.

If you don't have issues with giving away personal information, what about I reveal some data about you you simply gave into this forums freely yourself?
Hm?
You are retired, worked at IBM, and live southern the San Fransisco Bay in an own house, in a small town (which name I also know, but do not name here.)
How does this makes you feel?
No problem with that so far?
Well, what about your true name, your real snail address and private e-mail address, and your telefonnumber?
Relax! I don't know any of these things, and if I wouldn't tell them neither.
Do you want to see it come up here?
No, of course, not.
But what's the difference?
The difference simply is, if you are aware of it, or not.
That's the point exactly. While in fact it's no difference, if you are aware of it, or not.

I just wanted to make an example for most people don't care about their personal data at all as long as they don't know who knows what. But if they are confronted with reality "Shit! This stranger knows this and that about me" 😱 - or as Edward Snowden said: "They know EVERYTHING." - then they panic. But then it's too late. As you said yourself:
The net doesn't forget. So you better check carefulls twice in the first place which data you give where, how to whom for what. Instead of acting unheedingly until some total random stranger shows you, what she or he all knows about you.
And there is no "anonymity" because your personal data was lost beneath all the other millions. May I remind you we have computers theses days, capable to deal with such amount of data within fractions of a second.
 
ralphbsz said:
The description "managed to dump ... into the darknet" insinuates intent. That's paranoia.
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It was my personal data. You call victims of gross negligence paranoid?

There is, btw, a continuous spreading of paranoia, about security, about the evil hackers, about fixes that must be installed, about "rogue" countries (hello racism), etc.etc. But, if somebody manages to get a certain datum (usually by social hacking) or manages to enter your computer and add it to their botnet, then that is a single entity. a rather limited impact.
If, however, a company leaks their database, then there are thousands if not millions of people compromised. This is the real danger. And these companies can be expected to be negligent, because their only motivation is the greed for money.

ralphbsz said:
Accidents can always happen.
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So this is "acceptable losses"? That is not acceptable. In road traffic accidents can happen, then you might injure one or two people, and society accepts that risk. But if you drop a corporate customer database, it is thousands. This is not something to impose on society out of mere greed for profit.

ralphbsz said:
If you want to protect against these extremely rare (and usually harmless) accidents, then you have to remain completely anonymous. Donate to the FreeBSD Foundation by going to their office (it's not in Berkeley but in Boulder, Colorado), wearing a balaclava, dark glasses, and a hat, and leave a small leather satchel of gold nuggets at the front desk.
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Thats typical propaganda from the negligent ones. You can just tell us your birthday, full name and address, if you want to make a point. You can as well add your ailments and medications, marital status and names of children. Right here, right now down with the trousers!

My data is public anyway since the early days of the internet. But I feel responsible for this technology we brought upon mankind, and I didn't expect it to fall into the hands of the greedy ones entirely. If you have your records on file in paper, it is quite difficult for a large amount to get into the wrong hands - but if they are in a single data file, it is dead easy to copy that. This is an entirely new threat all over.

So if You feel no responsibility and no respect for mankind, that is Your business. I for my part do.

And if You say, we all have to suffer that risk, then I'd like to ask: for what benefit?
 
PMc, LLC is Limited Liability Corportation. I don't know the ins and outs, but for example, when my wife started her business, a studio for an exercise called Gyrotonic, her accountant advised her to do it that way. I agree with much of what you said, by the way. I don't think it's malicious on, say MasterCard's part, or most major companies, but it seems that almost everything gets cracked eventually. Though much of it is due to corporations skimping on security, it seems to happen even to companies who pay attention to such things. (Don't ask me for citations, it comes down to, I read something about it, somewhere, on the Internet). So, no matter how trustworthy FreeBSD is, the 3rd party handling donations will probably be cracked sooner or later.

I don't have any answers. My credit card company allows me to have a hidden number for accounts.. That is, if my credit card is 123 456 789 000, Amazon will have my credit card number as 234 678 901 075, which might do some good. But I have little faith in it.
 
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