6 ms·

Just received an extraordinary email from Expensify CEO

56 points by BerislavLopac 6y ago

blumomo 6y ago
One can easily state the opposite and claim that voting against Biden would make sure that an era of massive corruption can come to an end. So what‘s the point of having this email posted here? I don’t find such articles little helpful.
- foogazi 6y ago
  > So what‘s the point of having this email posted here? I don’t find such articles little helpful. Expensify is a startup, the CEO is sending out spam to users of the product I’m sure both those topics are valid for HN What do think this does for their business?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
insickness 6y ago
Narcissism dressed up as virtue.
nitinreddy88 6y ago
I am not sure how can he send this email as company CEO. You can have your personal opinion and can share them from your personal email address/social networking site. But expressing his political opinion from official email/business is plain wrong. I think this company is going to be in lot of trouble for forcing thier view on all of their customers and dropping emails to their offical mailboxes Am I missing something?! Edit: For people who are down voting without an explanation showing the immaturity level. I work for X company, customer of Expensify, received this email. This is total invasion of privacy. Neither I belong to US nor care about US politics.
- projektfu 6y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC Sauce for the goose (large corporations) is sauce for the gander (SMEs).
- ben_w 6y ago
  Even with my relatively restricted [0] views on free speech, I don’t see why a company CEO should be banned from expressing political views through their company. [0] Despite me being very pro free-speech by U.K. standards, the responses I get here demonstrate that I’m still a long way from the degree of free speech that American culture embodies.
  - DrBazza 6y ago
    I wouldn't be surprised if this email breaches EU GDPR laws in some form.
    - dsr_ 6y ago
      I would be surprised if it did violate GDPR. Which bit of your personal information was acquired, traded, or otherwise disclosed improperly?
      - avik1002 6y ago
        Wondering if you’d say the same way if google / facebook sent out similar message as they too have your email.
      - DrBazza 6y ago
        The trouble with GDPR is that it's legalese, but there's good reason to believe that this email breaches UK, and likely EU law, and a case could be made in court, probably article 21: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-21-gdpr/ https://gdpr-info.eu/art-21-gdpr/ In the UK: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/be-data-aware/political-campaigning-practices-direct-marketing/ https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/be-data-aware/political... "You have an absolute right under the Data Protection Act to object to marketing from any organisation and the processing of your information for direct purposes. However, a candidate, political party or referendum campaigner does have a right to send a Freepost mailing, as mentioned above." And under GDPR it's all about consent: https://www.superoffice.com/blog/gdpr-marketing/ https://www.superoffice.com/blog/gdpr-marketing/ "Data permission is about how you manage email opt-ins –people who request to receive promotional material from you. You can’t assume that they want to be contacted. In the future, they need to express consent in a ‘freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous’ way, which is reinforced by a ‘clear affirmative action’." Specifically, nothing in Expensify's EULA or settings allows me to opt out of the CEO's political views.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ceilingcorner 6y ago
Yikes. No matter what your opinion on his opinion, the CEO of a financial company sending an email like this looks bad. Whatever happened to the concept of trying to keep politics and business separate? Is every company going to have to publicly declare their political affiliation now? Not to mention that insisting that someone vote for your candidate or else is almost by definition anti-democratic.
- dsr_ 6y ago
  Politics and business aren't separate, or else industry lobbyists wouldn't be a thing.
  - ceilingcorner 6y ago
    The link has nothing to do with industry lobbying.
    - dsr_ 6y ago
      Lobbying is, literally, representing the interests of your group to politicians in order to get your concerns addressed by the government. When the group is one or more businesses, we call it industry lobbying. This is representing the interests of a business to the electorate, in order to get their concerns addressed. Since the electorate is the appropriate governmental body in charge of selecting a new President, this is precisely industry lobbying.
    - rsynnott 6y ago
      It's public lobbying. Public lobbying by companies is less common than lobbying aimed at legislators, but it does happen; see Lyft's recent Prop 22 messaging, for instance.
- flipgimble 6y ago
  If you actually read the email there is no “or else” or any other implied threat in there. So it’s rather disingenuous to add the implication when you simply don’t agree that the current political regime of Trumpism is steadily devolving the US into theocratic totalitarianism and a possible civil war. Given a plot to kidnap a Governor and a refusal to agree to a peaceful transfer of power, one must be in deep denial to not see the justification for this warning.
dsr_ 6y ago
Corporations lobby for their own interests all the time. It's unusual that Expensify is going for a Presidential election rather than specific legislation, but these are unusual times.
thenoblesunfish 6y ago
Seems like the CEO of this company decided that trying to avert a threat to democracy was worth the damage it might cause. It's reasonable to disagree with that - it's a difficult judgement call. But, people seem to be caught up in pointing out why a CEO wouldn't normally want to send this kind of email, not focusing on the more interesting point which is whether or not the threat from Trump justifies this kind of breaking of norms. In a way, breaking those norms is a feature, not a bug - it highlights how seriously he's taking this message that he would risk damage to his company to deliver it.
DevKoala 6y ago
Why is this thread flagged? I was looking for discussion on the topic in the first page.

56 points by BerislavLopac 6y ago

One can easily state the opposite and claim that voting against Biden would make sure that an era of massive corruption can come to an end. So what‘s the point of having this email posted here? I don’t find such articles little helpful.

foogazi 6y ago
> So what‘s the point of having this email posted here? I don’t find such articles little helpful. Expensify is a startup, the CEO is sending out spam to users of the product I’m sure both those topics are valid for HN What do think this does for their business?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

insickness 6y ago

Narcissism dressed up as virtue.

nitinreddy88 6y ago

I am not sure how can he send this email as company CEO. You can have your personal opinion and can share them from your personal email address/social networking site. But expressing his political opinion from official email/business is plain wrong. I think this company is going to be in lot of trouble for forcing thier view on all of their customers and dropping emails to their offical mailboxes Am I missing something?! Edit: For people who are down voting without an explanation showing the immaturity level. I work for X company, customer of Expensify, received this email. This is total invasion of privacy. Neither I belong to US nor care about US politics.

projektfu 6y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC Sauce for the goose (large corporations) is sauce for the gander (SMEs).
ben_w 6y ago
Even with my relatively restricted [0] views on free speech, I don’t see why a company CEO should be banned from expressing political views through their company. [0] Despite me being very pro free-speech by U.K. standards, the responses I get here demonstrate that I’m still a long way from the degree of free speech that American culture embodies.
- DrBazza 6y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if this email breaches EU GDPR laws in some form.
  - dsr_ 6y ago
    I would be surprised if it did violate GDPR. Which bit of your personal information was acquired, traded, or otherwise disclosed improperly?
    - avik1002 6y ago
      Wondering if you’d say the same way if google / facebook sent out similar message as they too have your email.
    - DrBazza 6y ago
      The trouble with GDPR is that it's legalese, but there's good reason to believe that this email breaches UK, and likely EU law, and a case could be made in court, probably article 21: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-21-gdpr/ https://gdpr-info.eu/art-21-gdpr/ In the UK: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/be-data-aware/political-campaigning-practices-direct-marketing/ https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/be-data-aware/political... "You have an absolute right under the Data Protection Act to object to marketing from any organisation and the processing of your information for direct purposes. However, a candidate, political party or referendum campaigner does have a right to send a Freepost mailing, as mentioned above." And under GDPR it's all about consent: https://www.superoffice.com/blog/gdpr-marketing/ https://www.superoffice.com/blog/gdpr-marketing/ "Data permission is about how you manage email opt-ins –people who request to receive promotional material from you. You can’t assume that they want to be contacted. In the future, they need to express consent in a ‘freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous’ way, which is reinforced by a ‘clear affirmative action’." Specifically, nothing in Expensify's EULA or settings allows me to opt out of the CEO's political views.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

ceilingcorner 6y ago

Yikes. No matter what your opinion on his opinion, the CEO of a financial company sending an email like this looks bad. Whatever happened to the concept of trying to keep politics and business separate? Is every company going to have to publicly declare their political affiliation now? Not to mention that insisting that someone vote for your candidate or else is almost by definition anti-democratic.

dsr_ 6y ago
Politics and business aren't separate, or else industry lobbyists wouldn't be a thing.
- ceilingcorner 6y ago
  The link has nothing to do with industry lobbying.
  - dsr_ 6y ago
    Lobbying is, literally, representing the interests of your group to politicians in order to get your concerns addressed by the government. When the group is one or more businesses, we call it industry lobbying. This is representing the interests of a business to the electorate, in order to get their concerns addressed. Since the electorate is the appropriate governmental body in charge of selecting a new President, this is precisely industry lobbying.
  - rsynnott 6y ago
    It's public lobbying. Public lobbying by companies is less common than lobbying aimed at legislators, but it does happen; see Lyft's recent Prop 22 messaging, for instance.
flipgimble 6y ago
If you actually read the email there is no “or else” or any other implied threat in there. So it’s rather disingenuous to add the implication when you simply don’t agree that the current political regime of Trumpism is steadily devolving the US into theocratic totalitarianism and a possible civil war. Given a plot to kidnap a Governor and a refusal to agree to a peaceful transfer of power, one must be in deep denial to not see the justification for this warning.

dsr_ 6y ago

Corporations lobby for their own interests all the time. It's unusual that Expensify is going for a Presidential election rather than specific legislation, but these are unusual times.

thenoblesunfish 6y ago

Seems like the CEO of this company decided that trying to avert a threat to democracy was worth the damage it might cause. It's reasonable to disagree with that - it's a difficult judgement call. But, people seem to be caught up in pointing out why a CEO wouldn't normally want to send this kind of email, not focusing on the more interesting point which is whether or not the threat from Trump justifies this kind of breaking of norms. In a way, breaking those norms is a feature, not a bug - it highlights how seriously he's taking this message that he would risk damage to his company to deliver it.

DevKoala 6y ago

Why is this thread flagged? I was looking for discussion on the topic in the first page.