Read on Twitter
1/ A moderately yappy thread regarding the crass, tasteless, UCP-infected opportunism that is @thankabhealth, at which point we can toss that whole unseemly venture in a flaming dumpster and move on.
2/ As attentive readers will recall, @thankabhealth initially described itself as little more than a grateful "gosh, aw shucks" Alberta couple who wanted to show their appreciation for Alberta's health care providers.
The evidence suggests otherwise.
The evidence suggests otherwise.
3/ The first niggling issue was when it surfaced that participant Philip Schuman was revealed as a previous potential UCP candidate for Alberta's 2019 election, an inconvenience casually brushed away by wife Tanya as having happened "years ago."
4/ Now you're free to embellish the occasional story to *some* extent, but when hubby was running to be a candidate in Alberta's 2019 election, claiming that that all falls under ancient history is more than a little disingenuous. But there's more. Moving on.
5/ A far bigger problem lies with Philip Schuman's offer to help connect alt-right loonbats with deep-pocketed benefactors, which should be enough to convince most people to keep their wallets right where they are. But, as before, there's more. https://pressprogress.ca/alberta-ucp-nomination-candidate-admits-he-offered-to-help-fund-an-instagram-group-that-shares-nazi-memes/
6/ Even ignoring all of the above, what's the harm in forking over $25 for a sign to thank Alberta's doctors and nurses if that money is then turned over to a food bank? Um, it's because it's not at all clear what portion of that will actually be turned over ...
7/ ... as Thank AB Health's Terms and Conditions turns out to be a lawyer's wet dream in terms of exceptions and expenses and wages and so on and so on.
https://www.thankabhealth.ca/terms-conditions1585440020446
https://www.thankabhealth.ca/terms-conditions1585440020446
8/ If that's not creepy enough, the Terms and Conditions page also refers to http://ThankABHealth.ca 's "officers, directors and employees," suggesting quite the enterprise here, and not just a regular couple who want to do something nice. But, as before, we're not done here.
9/ As I already suggested in an earlier thread, unless http://thankabhealth.ca is registered as an official charity under CRA rules, "donors" will not be eligible for charitable tax receipts ...
10/ ... but once http://thankabhealth.ca collects all that money and forwards it to an eligible food bank, it's quite possible that http://thankabhealth.ca *will* be able to claim a tax deduction for the entire collected amount.
But, again, we are still not done.
But, again, we are still not done.
11/ I pointed out yesterday that there was no privacy policy, at which time I was assured one would be forthcoming -- note well the promise of no spamming or subsequent solicitation.
12/ This is a noble-sounding promise, but it appears to fly in the face of the technology used to set up the web page, which is based on something called "Click Funnels," whose entire raison d'etre can be seen here.
13/ Yes, the entire rationale for the "Click Funnels" technology would appear to be to collect leads and turn them into ... customers, for what product or service we have no idea. But the best is yet to come.
14/ As promised, @thankabhealth did eventually publish a Privacy Policy and, OMG, it is something to behold. And as you read it, keep in mind that this is supposed to be in aid of doing nothing but selling some posters.
https://www.thankabhealth.ca/privacypolicy
https://www.thankabhealth.ca/privacypolicy
15/ In the end, if you really want to show your thanks to Alberta's doctors and nurses, I suspect there are better and safer ways to do that.
I'm just trying to be helpful here.
The end?
I'm just trying to be helpful here.
The end?
P.S. It occurs to take a closer look at https://www.clickfunnels.com/ , and notice that it it pretty clearly a for-pay lead-generation technology -- IOW, you need to pay for the use of the technology in order to get any benefit from it. And why is that significant?
Because Thank AB Health's Terms & Conditions page clearly states that they will deduct from the money they send to food banks, among other things, costs for "web service fees" and "outsourced work."
In short, according to that T&C page, Thank AB Health is free to use their "profits" from donations to pay themselves a salary, pay for their web page registration and upkeep, and pay for a Click Funnels membership for all that lead generation.
Just donate to a food bank.
Just donate to a food bank.
UPPITYDATE: I see Global journo @kendraslugoski invested no time whatsoever in looking into the details, and published a fawning piece of drivel. https://globalnews.ca/news/6753105/lawn-signs-thank-alberta-medical-workers-covid-19-coronavirus/
UPPITIERDATE: Apparently, Thank AB Health is crowing about the success of similar ventures, this one in Michigan.
Sadly, if you read that Michigan piece, you can appreciate the actual differences, particularly where one simply wanders by and picks up a sign for $3.50 with no need to shovel all their personal data into an online lead generation program.
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/03/ann-arbor-woman-gets-amazing-response-to-yard-signs-thanking-health-care-workers.html
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/03/ann-arbor-woman-gets-amazing-response-to-yard-signs-thanking-health-care-workers.html
Are we done here? Please tell me we're done here.
Apparently, we are not, as the folks at Thank AB Health are currently posting replies to my observations. So I'll throw out one more observation -- if they claim that all they want is to get posters to people, what's with this from their Privacy Policy?
None of the above has any relevance to simply taking a poster order from someone. On the other hand, it is exactly what you would collect if you are data mining for leads and potential customers.
Now go away before I taunt you again.
Now go away before I taunt you again.
