Privacy

I guess it was 8 or 10 years ago now that the Air Miles card was introduced. I believe, at the time, that this was a unique proposition - The ability to get something (in this case an ability to earn points for free air travel), for nothing! But, like many cautious people, I wondered what the catch was and argued that I was not interested in having someone track every thing I did – every transaction I made regardless of the purpose or the payoff. That it might only be used to advertise to me made no difference. Not withstanding the fact that Air Miles (in my limited experience) has mostly done a poor job of leveraging the information they mine, I still do not have a card. Having said that, I am not naive enough to think that what we might get directly from Air Miles by way of promotional offers is only a small part of the business model – who knows how much information is collected and where it is sold?

Other companies like Shoppers Drug Mart have done an excellent job through it's Optimum Card program which I am told offers customers savings based on real purchases... direct advertising based on direct knowledge (a unique concept?).

To me, all of this speaks the central issue of privacy and while creating mailing lists and contacting potential customers is simply good business, the question is where does it begin and where does it all end. As mentioned in previous postings, despite my embracing social media, so far I have avoided Facebook. Despite the fact that I receive numerous friend invitations, I am not interested in posting my personal photos or information regardless of the controls that are supposed to be available. At various times over the years it has been suggested to me, that I am overly paranoid. Perhaps so but after reading this article on privacy (or our lack privacy) on MSNBC I think even the most trusting person would have to stop and think.

It is a long article but worth reading as it points out how we guard our privacy at times yet have little regard for the same issues when we are on the web…or specifically on Facebook.
Based on trends, this is likely just the tip of the iceberg – after all, we live in an age where nothing seems to be off limits!