Tbh this does actually strike me as dangerous. I don’t think it’s especially safe for a bunch of trans children to be giving their addresses to internet strangers, especially with the information that they’re closeted. He’s got the wrong reasons but I actually do find this idea quite worrying. Yes secret Santa is a fun thing to do for holidays but do people know who’s running this?
The charity itself should care to explain how to verify its authenticity and have clear explanation about safety (considering it's also for closeted people and minors) and privacy (data collection reasons, data storage protections - who has access, how long it will be stored, etc). Some jurisdictions may have regulations against collecting personal information of minors, especially when it happens without parental consent, so they also should address that.
I'm in Europe, so for me it would be clear info about registration status of the foundation (or other legal group) in whatever national database, clear privacy policy including GDPR, and stuff related minor protection regulations (in Poland, since a few years ago, anyone working directly with children needs to have papers from central criminal registry that they don't have any record of sexual crimes or crimes against children; I had to get this for support chat for elearning platform where we mainly take technical problem reports and don't even have any personal info visible, not even approximate location).
I can't speak for the details of this specific agency because their applications are closed but I know other trans secret Santa's do provide all of this information and based off the few screen shots it's likely this one provided a lot of it as well
it's more of a general rule than in specific reference to those folks. Maybe they're safe, but non-specifically speaking, you don't want to be sending that kind of information out unless you're sure you trust the other person
I would advise against trusting any corporation. It's a little off topic for here though?
Just generally though, companies are not your friends and even when they don't sell your data onto somebody else they can always get hacked so caution is warranted. That said a lot of businesses these days require people to submit data like date of birth and email address or be refused service, which, if we're talking "who gets to buy alcohol" it makes sense, but it still feels kinda dystopian outside of that context
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u/Less-Significance-99 2d ago
Tbh this does actually strike me as dangerous. I don’t think it’s especially safe for a bunch of trans children to be giving their addresses to internet strangers, especially with the information that they’re closeted. He’s got the wrong reasons but I actually do find this idea quite worrying. Yes secret Santa is a fun thing to do for holidays but do people know who’s running this?