The Pebble and the Avalanche

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Current Revolutions in Business and Technology

by Dr. Moshe Yudkowsky,

author of The Pebble and The Avalanche: How Taking Things Apart Creates Revolutions

 

Thu, 2008-Jan-31, 06:21

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Good Disclosure and Sneaky Implementation of Bad Policy

Although I've found exactly what I wanted at Closet Organizer Source, I've decided to find a different company that supplies the same product. I have to give Closet Organizer Source credit: their privacy policy is well-written, easily understandable, and fully disclosed:

In return for making a purchase or registering at our site, we offer to keep you informed of new and ongoing benefits, exclusive sales and promotions and other customer-only benefits... If you make a purchase at ClosetOrganizerSource.com, we include you in our list to receive email updates about special offers, new products and services, and relevant information. We are a NetShops, Inc. company... We share the information you give us with other NetShops companies in order to provide you information and special offers from other NetShops sites.
Or, in other words, order anything from this company and receive a ton of spam from them and an undisclosed number of other companies. Your personal information also goes to their marketing firms, of course.

The sneaky part is twofold: first, when they ask for your email address, they say they need it to contact you about your order — nothing at all about a deluge of email marketing. Secondly, there is no checkbox next to the form that says "check here to receive promotional materials."

They say you can opt-out, but that's contrary to Internet etiquettte and I'm not in favor of encouraging rude behavoir. Frankly, I'm not comfortable with a company with this sort of invasive and evasive default policy, and I'll chose a company that has a more sensible privacy policy instead.

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