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Customer Service Agents Might Be Able To See What You're Typing In Real Time (gizmodo.com)
Gizmodo is warning that some customer service agents might be able to see what you're typing in real time. A reader sent them a transcript from a conversation they had with a mattress company after the agent responded to a message he hadn't sent yet. From the report: Something similar recently happened to HmmDaily's Tom Scocca. He got a detailed answer from an agent one second after he hit send. Googling led Scocca to a live chat service that offers a feature it calls "real-time typing view" to allow agents to have their "answers prepared before the customer submits his questions." Another live chat service, which lists McDonalds, Ikea, and Paypal as its customers, calls the same feature "message sneak peek," saying it will allow you to "see what the visitor is typing in before they send it over." Salesforce Live Agent also offers "sneak peak."
This particular magic trick happens thanks to JavaScript operating in your browser and detecting what's happening on a particular site in real time. It's also how companies capture information you've entered into web forms before you've hit submit. Companies could lessen the creepiness by telling people their typing is seen in real time or could eliminate the send button altogether. So if you don't want to be monitored or send secret messages to agents, put your phone on mute while on hold and copy/paste messages from another document to your customer service chatbox. And in general, be nice to customer service agents. It's not their fault.
This particular magic trick happens thanks to JavaScript operating in your browser and detecting what's happening on a particular site in real time. It's also how companies capture information you've entered into web forms before you've hit submit. Companies could lessen the creepiness by telling people their typing is seen in real time or could eliminate the send button altogether. So if you don't want to be monitored or send secret messages to agents, put your phone on mute while on hold and copy/paste messages from another document to your customer service chatbox. And in general, be nice to customer service agents. It's not their fault.
The logical solution would be to insert a false delay of 3-5 seconds whenever the user types something to the CSR's replies so that it is never perceived to be answering too fast.
As for the creepiness factor—you're typing stuff into a text box on a website, nothing should be considered hidden from them.
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I always assumed that the CSRs could see every keystroke I type in the chatbox.
If I have a long question (often the first question is long for example), I usually type the text into emacs (and, if I'm being picky, spell check it as well) and then cut and paste into the chatbox just to avoid confusion (such as me leaving out a "not" and later correcting it and the CSR never noticing my correction).
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
"live chat" has caught up to ICQ in the 90's.