Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
GiveSendGo, a Christian crowdfunding site that raised $8.7 million for the anti-vax “freedom convoy” in Canada, left sensitive data for more than 92,000 donors unprotected on its website.
The Salt Lake Tribune reviewed a copy of the information, which included names, emails, IP addresses and donation amounts. There were 616 donations from credit cards with Utah ZIP codes in the data.
Those donations totaled $41,206. The average contribution was approximately $67.
The Tribune is working to confirm the identity of several of the donors. Most of the emails were from Gmail or similar platforms. But, some donors used work, professional or .edu accounts. It appears at least one donor is an unsuccessful candidate for municipal office.
The largest donation was $2,000 from Sandy. A pair of $1,000 donations came from Mapleton and Orem. The remaining contributions were $500 or less and came from across Utah.
The database included messages donors left for the protesters. Some referenced Bible verses, but most of the others were some variation on freedom and standing up to tyranny, or just a simple “thank you.”
There were 145 uses of the word “freedom.” Tyranny was referenced 16 times in the Utah data. “Let’s go Brandon” only appeared 11 times.
“You are not only doing this for Canada but also for the United States. Although some in the U.S. are aware and praying for you, you are now the example to us in the fight for freedom. We unfortunately are once again that sleeping giant. I pray your example will give the U.S. the courage to wake up and stand beside you, our Canadian brothers and sisters in the fight for freedom. God bless you!” a donor from Tooele wrote.
“Hopefully after you all save Canada you come to the USA and save us next!” a message from a Cedar City donor read.
Unsurprisingly, the messages were not free from conspiracy theories. Two messages referenced the fantastical claim Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the love child of former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
“Go Truckers! You are not just fighting for Canada, you are fighting to free the world from tyranny! Stop Castro’s little b*stard!” a message from West Jordan read.
“Hope castros (sic) little boy tries to go after me…” another post from Saratoga Springs said.
There was a single use of the QAnon slogan WWG1WGA (”Where we go one, we go all”).
“WWG1WGA! God bless!” a donor from Park City said.
