Change.gov? Obama launches his own president-elect website

This is just great: change.gov (I actually said another word before "great", and I'll let everyone imagine what that word was.)

That's the official site for the "office of the president-elect", a new government website just to help usher in Barack Obama. And, it's not from the Bush-welcome-to-DC perspective, but instead from the Obama-I'm-in-charge-now perspective.

He's even got a wonderful form you can use called "An American Moment: Your Story" (change.gov/page/s/yourstory):

Start right now. Tell us your story in your own words about what this campaign and this election means to you. Share your hopes for an Obama Administration and a government for the people.

I'll leave it up to the reader to decide whether they want to fill out the form, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's an attempt to build either a mailing/donations list or an enemies list.

UPDATE: The supposed government website's Privacy Policy is a bit interesting (change.gov/about/privacypolicy). In fact, it has more of a non-profit/corporate look to it than something one would expect from the U.S. government. It's basically the same boilerplate as used on several other sites, all of which are not government entities [1]. Comparing to the current policies at barackobama.com is left as an exercise, but some excerpts from candidate sites as of February is here.

And, it looks like the supposed government site is leaving open the possibility of adding those who fill out their forms to mailing lists:

We collect Personal Information from eligible individuals who affirmatively request to receive e-mail or other services from us. We collect this Personal Information in order to provide these eligible individuals with timely information via e-mail regarding events, resources and issues.

Could filling out the form be considered an "affirmative request"? And, the following is worthless because of the "general":

It is our general policy not to make Personal Information available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents.

And, in addition to FOIA, anything you say could be released:

We treat your name, city, state, and any comments you provide as public information.

But, don't worry, you can opt-out of... the mailing list:

Subscribers to our e-mail list may terminate their subscriptions via a link at the bottom of each email sent from Change.gov.

The site also provides an email address at ptt.gov, a site that doesn't seem to exist. Since that's added to the page by Javascript, it might just be a programming error, or it could be a new surprise just for us.

[1] Some sites that share some of the boilerplate are the following:
lessig08.org/privacy.php
jstreet.org/privacy_policy
run4president.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=6
votervoter.com/wot-tvad/page/privacy
spellingchange.com/privacy-policy.php
democratsforvalues.com/privacy.htm

Comments

God help you all in the coming hell.