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Is Online Privacy Getting Better?
jeffy124 writes: "It appears marketers are finding that there's little value in stockpiling the personal info of web users. Either that or they're responding to the negative feedback of users. In a survey of 400 commercial websites, when compared with figures from a 2000 FTC study, more sites have more prominent and explanatory privacy policies, less carry third-party cookies, less collect personal info, and more use opt-in collection. The study was performed by the Progress & Freedom Foundation, and the full report can be found here." Note that the Progress & Freedom Foundation is an industry-sponsored group which generally favors a non-regulated online marketplace.
Marketing information just isn't as valuable when everyone and their dog.com already has it.
NO CARRIER
Those are still pretty pathetic statistics... every time my email address is demanded (although it will never be used, whats the point in asking for it then??) I get rather irate... and those were discounted in this figure...
If this is the case, why is the amount of spam mail I am receiving going through the roof? I have to believe that mail lists are being sold through loopholes. What about the folks who have their own mail servers so they can have address like expedia@mydomain, amazon@mydomain, etc... What do you guys see?
-Nuke the moon
Ok, so an industry-sponsored group reports that the industry is doing well in regards to privacy. Well, and to think I was SO WORRIED before...but it's ok now. Whew!
File this under "F" for fertilizer.
Also in the file:
-Microsoft commissions benchmark study which concludes Windows is faster than Linux!
-Microsoft Claims Open Source Doesn't Work / Is Dangerous / Is Anti-business / Causes Tooth Decay
-Osama Bin Laden's Mom Says "Deep down, he's a really great guy."
They have the info but dont know what to do with it. Im sure eventually a smart company will come as the sheepherder and point them in the right direction.
Telemarketers, TV / Radio advertisers took some time to learn too but eventually got it down to a science. Im sure these online advertisers will too, its only a matter of time.
IMO, this is one of the good things about IE6... I already liked the fact that it has SOME features in this field... the fact that it is causing other businesses to stand up and take notice is a definite bonus. Good privacy policies benefit us all. (Course, we already KNEW that, but the point is businesses are realising this.)
Course, (and this will probably prompt some to spend some valuable mod points) I've had nothing but great experiences with IE6... the fact that it has a 'delete cookies' button was the first addition I noticed, and liked. IE6 is a really good browser, at least for the better part. Nothing's perfect, as we all know, but IMO, finally Microsoft's starting to get there with their browser.
(Yes, Mozilla has good features in this regard too. But Mozilla often crashes on my system. This is not Pro-IE Anti-Moz. I like Mozilla too. In this case, I just HAPPEN to prefer IE.) (sees more people using their mod points to silence this one ^_^)
I'd also like to note that I de-integrated IE from Windows... so my main thing is - hopefully they'll make Windows run as nice.
Just my $0.02CDN.
These publishers are usually money-hungry types who fear that "double opt-in will prevent my potential subscribers from successfully subscribing". In other words, they perceive their readership to be so dim-witted that a confirmation email would stump them.
Single opt-in lists are considered spam generating machines by everyone who matters in the industry (just give the SPAM-L list a read sometime), yet so-called legitimate publishers are using it to help their bottom line.
I actually had one extremely well-known marketer tell me, in the midst of an argument about this very topic, that "If I changed my company's policy to double opt-in - which would reduce our new monthly opt-ins by perhaps 50% - I would then lose substantial revenues."
The marketer went on to expand on this rationale, saying "PLUS, about half my readers are so sophisticated that they use either aliases, special autofolders, or special other accounts to handle email opt-ins. Sometimes they don't check their issues for weeks."
For the life of me I still don't know what "special other autofolders" and "special other accounts" means. But good thing these key subscribers didn't have any double opt-in road blocks -- now they can safely store unread messages from this key marketer in unknown "autofolders".
Spam keeps getting worse, publishers keep getting snakier, and the legit ones keep trying to stay out of the slime. Sometimes it feels like I'm trying to paint my house in the middle of rioting and anarchy in my neighborhood, if you know what I mean.
Oh yeah -- the reason I posted. You said:
Ahh.. yes, the "open rates". The biggest crock of shit to ever land in a marketer's bag of tricks. Don't get me started...