How many times have you surfed to a new site, only to be asked for
your name, birthday and gender? Did you enter the information that
was requested? And if you did enter it, was it the real information
or something you made up?
I don't know about you, but I find sites which needlessly ask for
personal information to be annoying. In fact, I will leave a site the
moment a site requires me to enter anything which is not necessary to
complete the transaction.
Yes, I do understand that when I apply for a credit card I need to
enter my social security number, birthday and mother's maiden name.
In these instances, the purpose of the information is readily
apparent - it is needed in order to obtain my credit record. This is
normal and expected and thus I don't even think about entering the
data.
On the other hand, why does that free mail account require me to
enter my birthday and gender? Worse yet, they want to know how much
money I make! Why on earth would I want them this information? They
obviously don't need this data to create a free mailbox - so there
must be some other purpose which is not obvious.
Of course, they want this data so they can build a profile about me,
which in turn can be used to target advertising to me and other's
like me. My personal information is not likely to be used
specifically - rather, it is grouped together and sold as a unit. For
example, an advertiser might want to display a banner to thirty year
old males who make $30,000 a year or more. By having this
information, the free email account company can satisfy that need for
their customers - the advertisers.
Yeah, I know they promise in their privacy policy that the
information will not be abused - but Amazon recently told us all how
important privacy policies are to corporate America. This company
simply modified the policy to allow the information to be sold to
third parties! They sent out an email informing all of their
customers that the information which used to be private is private no
longer.
So a privacy policy does not appear to be a binding document - at
least, it's not if it can be changed at will. What this means is a
privacy policy is essentially worthless, even if you completely trust
the company. Why worthless? Well, if that company that you trust with
all of your personal data is sold, it is no longer run by the people
that have earned your trust. New owners could easily modify the
policy at any time.
Ah, I hear you saying, who cares about privacy anyway? Well, you
should. Let me give you an example. Let's say you've been purchasing
liquor over the internet. Now your wife divorces you and subpoenas
that internet company for the records of your purchases. She could,
in theory, use that information against you in a divorce case. The
liquor receipts do not prove you were an alcoholic, but they could
certainly be used to sway a jury that it is possible.
In the company that I work for, it is a serious offense to let
other's in the company find out how much money you make. In fact, you
could be fired if you told another employee your salary. Yet you have
to enter that same highly sensitive data to get a free email account!
There have also been quite a few stories in the news lately about
accidental e-mailings of personal information to the wrong people.
These mailings all seemed to have to do with medical records. I read
one case where 5,000 people received other people's medical history
in their email box! I don't know about you, but I don't really want
my medical records spread all over the planet!
What is the point of all of this? Well, you just need to be careful
about giving out your personal information over the internet. You
don't really know who is at the other end of the telephone line, and
you probably don't have a good understanding of how that information
is to be kept secure, how it is going to be used and why it is even
needed in the first place.
So before you type in that personal data ask yourself a few questions.
Do I really need this service? - When I am asked something personal
that I would rather not give out, this is the first thing that I ask.
Is this service really that important? For me, half the time the
answer is no. If it is important, I usually find that I can pay some
small fee for the same service without giving any personal data, and
that's what I usually wind up doing.
What is this information likely to be used for? - This is obvious
when I'm entering information to get a credit card, and not so
obvious when I want a free email account. Remember, you never get
something for nothing - there is always a price, even if it is well
hidden. Find out what the site is going to use the information for
before you enter it.
Do I care if anyone else knows this information? - If the answer is
yes (as it was for the amount of money that I make), then think a
little harder about entering it into that web form. How embarrassed
or damaged would you be if that data wound up posted on a thousand
web sites?
Personally, I am least likely to give away personal information that
is to be used for marketing purposes, no matter how much benefit I
will gain for that data. It is not one of my primary goals in life to
make it easier for advertisers to target me for their messages. In
fact, I would rather not get their ads at all.
The key is simple. Before you enter that information into the web
form, do a little research and find out what the data is going to be
used for. Think for a moment about how you would feel if everyone
knew, then decide for yourself if you still want to enter it.
That's all I've got to say about that.
About the Author
Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This
website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet
profits, enjoyment and knowledge.
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