Marketing Watchdog: How Private is YOUR Info?
Not every person or business you give your email address to has a privacy policy. Privacy policies are legal jargon that usually discloses what an entity will do with your personal information (like email address) once the receive it. Many companies respect privacy while others rampantly violate it in the name of profit and a quick buck.
One example of an offender I was appaled to discover was my bank. I had a good business relation with them: I had a bank issued credit card, checking and savings accounts, a loan and direct deposit from my payroll system at work. What i DIDN'T know was that this same bank was selling my information to third party spammers and marketers who incessantly bombarded me at my home on the phone, in my mailbox and in my email inbox. Apparently the bank sent a disclosure out annually with very very fine print stating that they provide customer information to third parties, affiliates and business partners for various reasons without prior customer approval. The end of the long disclosure ends with a passive clause that states: Continuing to do business with them states an agreement with these terms of privacy policy. No room for debate there. It was either THEIR way or the highway.
It appalls me to realize that my bank gives away my name in lists of information to other companies about my bank balances, outstanding loans and debts. The latest annoyance has been a flurry of emails and phone calls I have received over the past three months from financial agencies all over the country. Their pitch was that my loan terms were about to expire and that I should consider refinancing. Now how did they know my loan terms? Some mailings even had fancy custom printed information about my current outstanding loan balance. Now how did they know THAT?
If you suspect that someone or some business that you have established a relationship with abuses your information, you can conduct a simple test. Create a throwaway email address and substitute it in your contact information profile for the business that you suspect. Then wait. When the spam starts rolling in to that address, you know that your information has been compromised. It isn't that any law was violated... becuase the institutions usually disclose that they indeed give (or SELL) personal customer data... it's just that it's so annoying that you as the consumer can't do much other than pack up and stop doing business with them.
It pays to read the fine print. Next time you submit your info to an online shop or business, take a few moments to read the privacy disclosures. I think they're required to have them. Then decide if it's worth trusting them with your info.