Text messages and opt-in
Mission Control is software made by Oldman AI Solutions and used by Canadian political campaigns to talk to the people in their own communities. A campaign using it sends and receives text messages under its own name, from its own number, with one exception: the get out the vote texts service, described below. This page describes how that works and how to stop it.
Who is writing to you
The campaign, not us. Every conversation opens with the campaign’s own name, and where a message is election advertising it also carries the sponsor identification that the election law of that province or municipality requires. If a conversation ever reaches you without the campaign’s name in it, that is a fault and we would like to know.
Some campaigns answer their text line with an AI assistant. When they do, it says so in its first message and it never claims to be the candidate or any other person.
The get out the vote texts service
Some small campaigns do not run a console of their own. They send Oldman AI Solutions their get out the vote message and the list of their own supporters who agreed to hear from them, and we send the texts for them from one number we keep for that service. Every text still starts with the campaign’s name and carries its sponsor line, and it goes only to the people on that campaign’s own list. No assistant writes on that number.
Because the number is shared, a STOP sent to it stops every campaign that texts through it, not only the one you replied to. A reply other than STOP, START or HELP is read by a person at Oldman AI Solutions and passed to the campaign it was about.
How a campaign comes to have your number
A number reaches a campaign in one of a few ordinary ways: you filled in a form on the campaign’s website, you signed up at an event or with a volunteer at the door, you gave it to someone in a conversation and asked to be kept in touch with, somebody referred you, or you texted or called the campaign first.
A campaign may also hold a membership or electors list that it is entitled to hold under the election law it runs under. Where it does, that list is used for non-commercial political correspondence and nothing else, and the campaign is responsible for the basis on which it holds it. No list, no count and no information about any person appears on this page.
Why these are not commercial messages
Canada’s anti-spam legislation governs commercial electronic messages. A message from a candidate’s campaign asking where you stand, telling you when and where to vote, or answering a question you asked is not one: nothing is being sold and no commercial activity is being promoted. Campaigns using Mission Control do not send commercial messages from these numbers.
That is a reason the consent regime for marketing does not fit; it is not a reason to message somebody who does not want it. Which is what the rest of this page is about.
Stopping, restarting, and getting help
One word, at any time, replying to any message. These work whether or not the campaign is using an assistant, and they are handled before any reply is written.
To stop
Reply STOP. Also accepted, exactly: STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, REVOKE, OPTOUT, OPT-OUT. Ordinary politeness around the word is fine; “STOP PLEASE” stops.
In other languages, the word for stop on its own also stops: ARRÊT (Français), PARAR (Español), ਬੰਦ (ਪੰਜਾਬੀ), 停止 (中文), TIGIL (Tagalog), توقف (العربية), रोकें (हिन्दी).
“You are unsubscribed from [campaign] and will not get further messages. Reply START to rejoin.”
The campaign stops texting that number, and nothing it sends afterwards can reach it. A campaign cannot undo this from its own console; only you can, with the next word.
To start again
Reply START (or UNSTOP).
“You are resubscribed. Reply STOP any time to opt out again.”
To find out who this is
Reply HELP (or INFO).
“[Campaign name], [locality]. [campaign phone]. Reply STOP to unsubscribe. Ask for a person and someone from the campaign will pick up the conversation.”
The square brackets are filled in with that campaign’s own name, town and phone number. Asking for a person works too: say so, and the assistant steps back and a person from the campaign picks up the conversation. On the get out the vote texts number, HELP gives the service’s name and number instead, and a person at Oldman AI Solutions answers.
What these numbers are not used for
- No advertising, and nothing for sale. These are not marketing numbers.
- Links in a campaign’s automated messages and waves go only to that campaign’s own website, never through a public link shortener, so you can see where a link goes before you tap it.
- Numbers are not sold, rented or traded, and one campaign’s contacts are not visible to another.
Message frequency and cost
Frequency varies by campaign and is heaviest in the weeks before a vote. Message and data rates may apply, as with any text message. Campaigns using Mission Control are held to the calling and messaging hours of the jurisdiction they run in.
Reaching us
The campaign is the first place to ask, and HELP gives you its number. For anything about the software itself, or if a campaign is not honouring a STOP, write to greg@oldmanaisolutions.com or see Oldman AI Solutions. Our privacy policy says what is kept and for how long.