Mar 31 2009
Privacy Slip-Ups – A Firsthand Account
Today was a landmark day for me – I was the victim of some misused personal information! Hooray!
I am joking about the “hooray” part, of course. Data privacy is no laughing matter, and if the information that was exposed to me today had been more significant, I would be pretty angry right now. As it so happens, it was not, so I feel comfortable sharing it with you all in the hope that we can all learn a bit by others’ foibles.
So at around noon today, I received a phone call from a representative at a home improvement ratings & reviews service that I am a happy member of. Unlike most review services, this one is a pay system that works on a subscription model, so it is not that strange that they would be contacting me with account or service information. However, after a moment of basic customer satisfaction survey-type questions, the conversation moved into some uncomfortable territory.
“Have you used any of the contractors or vendors that you have recently researched on our site? Would you like to review them now?” the representative asked.
“No, I have not,” I replied. “I have done some research but not yet used any of the contractors I’ve found on your site. When I do, I will post my reviews online.”
“Ok,” she answered, pausing for a moment. “Well, what about [name of vendor]? I see that you looked them up recently. Do you have a review for their service?”
“Um, no. I just told you that if I did, I would have posted a review online,” I responded.
“Or what about [name of another vendor]? I see that you pulled their record up within the past few months as well,” she asked.
It was at this point in the conversation that I was reminded of Ben Isaacson’s post on our site last month, “A Belated Privacy Day Top 10.” In case you missed it, Ben’s piece included the following tip to responsible online marketers:
2) Never personalize emails by casually dropping Big Brother-ish web analytics data; “Since you opened and clicked through 4 of the last 6 emails, we thought you’d like this offer.”
So here I was, staring a privacy violation right in the face. What is a marketer to do? I came back with this:
“Listen, I enjoy your service but do not feel comfortable having my online behavior revealed to me over the phone. If you would like to keep me as a customer, perhaps you should re-examine your privacy policy. If I have any reviews to give, I will post them online.”
In retrospect, I probably should have ended with “I said good day, sir!” but hey, you can’t win ‘em all. In the meantime, I can take a little comfort in trying to spread the word to other marketers on how to best treat your customers’ behavioral data. Use web analytics responsibly!
