Marketing Watchdog: How Private is YOUR Info?

tinybot2k — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:33:00 GMT

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.

Annoying Introductions

tinybot2k — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:00:00 GMT

How many times have you been approached by phone, email or in person with sayings like:

Hi, you MAY have ALREADY won a bright, shiny new...

Hi, you MIGHT be the winner of a...

Just enter for a CHANCE to...

The caller should just be honest and say:

Hi, we want to collect some information about your for our marketing scheme. We are curious if you are stupid enough to think that you have a decent chance at our prize and are willing to bank our efforts on it...

Pardon my cynicism but these marketing schemes seem to word things such that you (as the target prospect) will think that you already have the prize in your hands and all it takes is a little effort to obtain it; when in fact this is furthest from the truth. I think of this as deceiving behavior and suspect to immediate distrust. What makes marketing firms and departments think that they can get away with such behavior? Wouldn't everyone eventually become suspicious after awhile?

The answer is... yes. I shut out introductions promising fancy vacations, fabulous prizes and such simply because I know it's a numbers game. First, there are odds against actually winning the prize. The marketer does not have to disclose these odds, but in order to make things worth his/her while, they will probably have these odds be very difficult. For example, website banner ads promising a free Apple iPhone probably tap thousands of entrants before they finally draw a winner... that's steep odds.

How exactly do these marketers make money from this effort? The answer is it's a numbers game. First, even if only 1 in 10 people respond to their marketing efforts if they have a contact list of a hundred thousand people divided between an army of telemarketers that yields a collection of 10,000 farmed contact numbers, names and information. These marketing moguls then use this list for future campaigns or they turn around and sell this information to other marketing houses who want to reach an audience. I have seen ads selling "CD's" containing lists of people's names and contact info culled for spamming and telemarketing endeavors.

With emails it is even more profitable. Aside from paying for a server or webhosting service to house your mail server functions, sending thousands of emails... even millions of emails costs next to nothing. Even with a 0.01 percent response rate (that's really small) a million email campaign can yield a response rate of 100 interested people. That list is valuable stuff. Other marketing firms will pay top dollar for the contact info of those interested people. Or, if you just got these people interested in buying your product, that's tidy profit for not even having to leave the comfort of your desk. Even your traditional brick and mortar storefront probably could not match the power of reaching a million prospects. Not bad for just pushing a few electrons.

So the next time you are approached, think twice about the personal information you provide - the person who approaches you isn't in the business of giving away prizes. They're there to collect your contact info (and any other info they can get) for later resale.

tinybot2k : spam

Marketing Watchdog: How Private is YOUR Info?

Annoying Introductions