Stalker marketing is an unsustainable business model

Information Week has an article about a coalition seeking greater protection of consumers' online privacy. Push back is coming from those with a vested interest in stalker marketing.

Apart from the fact that we want the freedom of surfing the internet without corporations tracking us, lack of privacy is a security vulnerability. Now is the time to put in place regulations that protect our privacy, before we have a trillion dollar industry with a vested interest in spying on us.

Use and abuse of email marketing

Law Technology News: Is Your E-Communication Being Read?

But one of the greatest benefits of using these services over your own in-house e-mail program is that you are able to follow your readers. The tracking reports show you specifically who (the actual e-mail address) opened the e-mail, which e-mail bounced (bad address), who forwarded the e-mail (although you won't get to see to whom the e-mail was forwarded -- that technology does not exist yet), and if you provided links to information on your Web site or other Web links, you will see who clicked on those links. In addition to tracking the recipients of your e-newsletter, using an e-mail marketing service will give you piece of mind that your e-communication complies with antispam laws.

I realize that these technologies are well established; but I think this is an intrusive approach to marketing. It is perilously close to spying on newsletter subscribers. Of course this sort of feedback is extremely useful, but it is not worth the risk to the breakdown in trust, especially with a law firm. Just because a thing can be done, does not mean it should be done.

Deep-packet inspection, or Stalker Marketing

Internet Providers Quietly Test Expanded Tracking of Web Use to Target Advertising

Although common tracking systems, known as cookies, have counted a consumer's visits to a network of sites, the new monitoring, known as "deep-packet inspection," enables a far wider view -- every Web page visited, every e-mail sent and every search entered. Every bit of data is divided into packets -- like electronic envelopes -- that the system can access and analyze for content.

"You don't want the phone company tapping your phone calls, and in the same way you don't want your ISP tapping your Web traffic," said Ari Schwartz of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an advocacy group. "There's a fear here that a user's ISP is going to betray them and turn their information over to a third party."

What's in your customer service agreement?

Every security expert I have spoken with tells me that lack of privacy is itself a security vulnerability. Besides, it is just plain creepy to be stalked.

Solzhenitsyn Quote on Data and Privacy

As every man goes through life he fills in a number of forms for the record, each containing a number of questions . .. There are thus hundreds of little threads radiating from every man, millions of threads in all. If these threads were suddenly to become visible, the whole sky would look like a spider's web, and if they materialized as rubber bands, buses; trams and even people would all lose the ability to move, and the wind would be unable to carry torn-up newspapers or autumn leaves along the streets of the city. They are not visible, they are not material, but every man is constantly aware of their existence.... Each man, permanently aware of his own invisible threads, naturally develops a respect for the people who manipulate the threads.