Wish I'd Said That Dept.

July 21, 2000 2:46 PM

Wish I'd Said That Dept.
If the privacy-invaders are going to collect so much information on me, why can't they seem to USE IT?
posted by wendell (4 comments total)

Personally, I've found that half the e-mail I get from commercial sites I've voluntarily registered are "JOIN UP" appeals. I'm always getting "refinance your mortgage" spam (though every form I ever filled out says "I RENT"), and lots of credit card offers from cards I already have, or have already been rejected by (I am not Platinum material). And, yes, I've used a couple of those notorious Free ISPs, and the more I do, the more the constant ads at the bottom of the screen are for things I have NO interest in. (Harlequin Books AND Maxim Magazine? They're just guessing.). Maybe the bright side is: If they can't use the information FOR you, maybe they won't be able to use it AGAINST you... or maybe they're just lulling fools like me into a sense of false security.
posted by wendell at 2:50 PM on July 21, 2000

The main falacy of directed marketing is that companies only want you to see their ads if you might be interested in their products or services. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. It doesn't cost any more to send the email to everybody on the planet. And the marketing data costs a lot of money to compile. Businesses come out ahead if they put the ad in front of everyone.
posted by y6y6y6 at 4:49 PM on July 21, 2000

Kottke said something about this a few days ago too.
posted by deckard at 8:16 PM on July 21, 2000

Yes, I wish I'd said that, too...
I wonder if Kottke will lend me his Kathie Lee CD...
posted by wendell at 1:28 PM on July 22, 2000