Stop or Keep Watching Me!

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Permalink Reply by Erik Deckers on February 21, 2008 at 9:28am

I'm in the middle. I don't mind if some people are watching me, but they're only a select few. The rest of the people who are tracking me just irk me. However, when I realized how many people are watching and how much, I just threw up my hands and gave up.

Basically, it's inescapable. There are data collection companies that know where you shop, what you buy, where you eat, what you drive, what magazines you read, how old your kids are, when you have kids, etc. And thanks to the mailing list companies we use, I can create a mailing list that would have anyone on there.

Small business owners who drive a Honda, make more than $60,000, and like motorsports? No problem. Thai food eating dentists who live in houses less than 9 years old and have children younger than 5? Easy. Single IT professionals who commute more than 15 miles to work? Puh-leeze.

Whether you like it or not, you're being watched. You just can't stop it. But you can cut back on the amount of crap you get. Register for the do not call lists (www.donotcall.gov), and choose which catalogs you receive (www.catalogchoice.org). It won't stop people from watching you, but they'll bug you a whole lot less.

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Permalink Reply by Jill Woods on February 21, 2008 at 10:39am

I, too have some middle ground on this. On one side I am a salesperson, which means I do have to use the internet, and other sources to find business for my property to remain profitable and of course increase year over year rev. I also have to call or email people in order to find the right contacts for travel/reservations, and realize that sometimes I may not be calling at the right time for them or they just do not like being asked. I work very hard at not being an annoying salesperson BUT I am in sales and have to represent my company. We do track our best customers and reward them for their loyalty.
Also- as a consumer, if a company I buy from is tracking my purchases - I know why and am not freaked out about it. Especially if I recieve special offers or reward gifts for being a loyal customer. Business is so competitive, they have to be almost in your face about their products or they will be forgotten. I also liked being asked my opinion so surveys are ok to me to. If I don't have time, I can always hang up or hit delete on the email. I think too many people get offended about being approached - if you are in business, you deal with vendors - and sometimes have to replace them with someone new. How else would you know what is out there unless you are open to them?

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Karr on February 21, 2008 at 11:14am

I may be the exception - I absolutely despise providing my personal information AND permission and the company neglects to utilize it. After I upgrade all of my phones, why does Verizon send me a direct mail piece with phone upgrade offers and new phones that I'm NOT ALLOWED to take advantage of? That's just one example. It's lazy marketing and it diminishes your message. Now, the next time I see a direct mail piece from Verizon it, invariably, goes in the trash - since they've already shown me they can't be trusted to do their homework.

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Permalink Reply by Erik Deckers on February 21, 2008 at 11:27am

Well, that's different from collecting information. It's using it, properly or not, that becomes the issue. People collect all kinds of information, but when they use it stupidly, I hate them. When they use it correctly, and to my needs/tastes, I don't mind.

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Permalink Reply by Henry Kurkowski on February 21, 2008 at 12:35pm

It depends on the service.

To be more precise, if you sign up to use a free service such as Gmail, then you should be savvy enough to know that the cost of this “free” service is that you must endure a bit of targeted marketing.

No one is forcing you to use that service, and you have free will to switch to another provider at any time.

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Schieler on February 21, 2008 at 1:09pm

I don't mind providing feedback on goods and services that I have purchased. I'm also happy to provide input on goods and services that I am likely or not likely to purchase in the future. The key for me is that I want my personal information protected. I think another problem is time and format. If the information takes a long time to collect I'm not interested in spending my time for no compensation unless I feel strongly. In addition, the format is important (e.g. email, phone, etc.).

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Permalink Reply by Eric Prugh on February 21, 2008 at 1:14pm

I love targeted marketing if it's executed well. I can find things I may not have found (that I want), which is cool.

Honestly, I think the more targeted and more relevant the marketing is to the customer, the less annoying it will be. If businesses are sending you stuff that they know I will be interested in (based on web analytics, tracking, or whatever), why wouldn't I want to receive it? That's the value in relevant and targeted marketing. That's also why it is so successful when executed properly. Sure, I get email I don't want, but the offers I hear about from companies I'm interested in is what makes me happy, and also will make the business the most money. I guess I can see it both from a consumer and business standpoint, which may not be the point of your post. :-)

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Permalink Reply by Chris Lucas on February 21, 2008 at 2:00pm

Good topic Doug. It actually irks me when a company that I have purchased something from, who I know is tracking me, delivers a message that is useless to me - a few examples:

* Just purchased DirectTV - Yet I still receive sign up with DirectTV mail at least twice a month
* I have a Chase Credit Card with rewards - I still get the introductory Chase Credit card offers for their chase rewards card.
* We own a Nissan Altima that was just recently paid off - Close to the payoff date I received a pamphlet on the Nissan Sentra - a smaller car than the Altima.

So I think if you are going to track me, at least offer me something that is better than what I currently have.

Also, I think Seth Godin had a good post (will try to find a link) about "Surprise Marketing". Where he stated that most people don't mind if you track them and they know it, but surprising people with how much info you do know "Hi Chris, we saw that you clicked on the Altima page at 2:59 PM on Thursday, built a car, got a quote, but never visited the dealer" type message scares people and makes them less willing to be tracked.

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Karr on February 21, 2008 at 3:37pm

Wow, Chris! I love the Nissan example... that's incredible! Reminds me of when The Gap spun off Old Navy. Everyone stopped shopping at The Gap! They may have wanted to check their data first :)

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Permalink Reply by Chris Lucas on February 21, 2008 at 3:59pm

Yeah, I was almost insulted :)! It is funny though I just recently got an Infiniti ( a div of Nissan) offer which was really well done and was highlighting their new SUV's and hybrid SUV's (I have an SUV which is almost paid up on). So there is a disconnect between the two divisions - one gets it and the other doesn't.

American Airlines is pretty bad at this as well. I have frequent flier information and cities to be notified about flight $$'s with my departure city set as Indy. I still get offers with departures at SFO (San Francisco) where I lived over five years ago and Chicago. That really annoys me.

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Sullivan on February 21, 2008 at 6:21pm

Any other choices? This is a pretty big issue. Personally, it's getting invasive and creepy- I don't want to be observed, but surveillance is everywhere. So, one problem is the (generally) unregulated collection of consumer information- and what they collect. This can include anything from purchase data to video surveillance in stores to understand how customers react to product placement and layout (in some stores/chains, observed behavior will trigger assistance being sent). Another problem is what companies do with it- again, in the US, largely unregulated. Retailers are notorious for collecting far more data than they use, and not taking very good care of it. In many cases they don't really know exactly what they have (how many companies discovered they really were storing track I data from credit cards when they finally dealt with PCI-DSS?). It's not just losing the data, but keeping it current, accurate, using it for specific business purposes (and then only what is relevant), and other practices. What they do with it is another batch of problems- yeah, they call you during dinner, but they also analyze the data, make various assumptions about the trends and automate decisions that can have very specific effects (employment, credit, insurance, etc).

Another problem is that consumers are far too willing to give up even sensitive data because the return looks good, convenient, etc. Consider the trend towards online health information repositories for consumers. Consumers assume this data is regulated in these circumstances- likely it won't be, since the repositories won't be run by "covered entities" under HIPAA. And, once you authorize the transfer of data from a covered entity to an organization that's not regulated, then all bets are off- the regulatory protections don't necessarily follow the data.

Europe, in fact most of the rest of the world, operates on a different model. In the US, privacy regulation is tort-driven and specific to types of data and types of harm (medical data, financial data, ID theft -both financial and medical). Elsewhere data privacy rights are viewed as fundamental human rights. Individuals must be notified of data collection practices, permission is required for collection and use, use must be for a specific purpose consistent with the purposes disclosed at the time of collection, individuals have a right to access and correct personal information and request that processing of faulty information cease, and they have a right to redress if there are disputes over the data use, or harms caused by it.

Well, enough- Anybody remember Blank Reg, from Max Headroom? Ah, anonymity!

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Permalink Reply by Bruce LaDuke on February 21, 2008 at 7:06pm

I think we've just scratched the surface of this. As an 'Internet of Things' emerges, the stakes are going to raise.

If I thought that things were going to stay the same, I woulnd't see much problem with where we are today, but if you consider that most data collected is kept for years, if not indefinitely, and that capabilities to semantically analyze that data are increasing exponentially, and add in increasingly sophisticated GPS and ubiquitous video...it won't be long before companies will know things about you that you might not even know yourself.

With that said, I agree with Patrick in that "it's getting invasive and creepy."

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