The issue of online privacy can be argued from the standpoints of two main camps: consumers and marketers. Which side are you on?
If you are a consumer, most likely you do not want marketers using their websites to gather personal data on your websurfing habits, purchasing patterns, and what you are most likely to click on. It's creepy.
If you are from the marketer camp, your argument will be that the more data you gather on your market and consumers, the better you are able to serve your market and consumers.
A recent
report by the FTC promotes guidelines for online businesses to follow in how they respect the privacy of their consumers.
An excerpt from this report:
“Companies should adopt a ‘privacy by design’ approach by building privacy protections into their everyday business practices. Such protections include reasonable security for consumer data, limited collection and retention of such data, and reasonable procedures to promote data accuracy."
I love how the report uses the word "reasonable" over and over again. What is the definition of "reasonable" in this regard? Who sets the standard for "reasonableness"? The word "reasonable" is just like the word "normal". When you really think about it, there is no such thing. It is all subjective. For example what is a "normal teenager" nowadays? In a previous
post, we see that a "normal teen" is one that sends an average of over 2,000 text messages a day. I do not consider that normal.
But I digress...
Back to the issue of online privacy, we can see that the FTC has adopted what I like to call "strategic ambiguity". The phrase is used often in military strategy and foreign policy, allowing policy-makers wiggle room for their decisions. This is just a nice way of saying that it lets them do what they want.
The FTC will use the "reasonableness" standard to persecute who they want to persecute and ignore who they want to ignore.
My opinion is that the consumer culture in America should be an Opt In culture and not an Opt Out culture. In other words, it should be assumed from the start that consumers do not want to be contacted by marketers, but if they do, they can Opt In to be part of the marketing data collection. This is not how it is now, where you have to check or uncheck a box saying that, "no, I do not want to be spammed."
The great thing about Opt In consumer culture is that it forces marketers to offer value up front and soft sell their product. Soft selling is offering value first that compels the consumer to seek out the product/service for themselves. Hard selling is all the SPAM you find in your inbox.
Hopefully the new FTC report will guide marketers away from hard selling and direct sales techniques. I've just had to call a telemarketing firm to stop calling me and threaten to sue them. These new guidelines should make marketers go back and refine their techniques.
Until next time...
