Watch My Stuff!

I CAME ACROSS FOUR RANDOM FACTS LAST WEEK that, taken together, add up to something important:

• The New York Times said researchers were able to reconstruct social security numbers for 8% of the U.S. population born between 1989 and 2003 (about 5 million) by starting with their birthdates and the city and state of their birth.

• Netflix called off the second round of a contest offering $1 million to any developer who could hone its movie recommendation platform. Seems consumer groups protested that by serving up actual rental data for testing, even scrubbed of personally identifiable information, the company risked exposing details about its users’ tastes and lifestyles.

• My own broadband company, without prompting by me, asked to be able to “use my current mobile location.” No explanation why, or what benefit was in it for me. I said no.

• The 2010 Chief Marketer Interactive Marketing Survey previewed in this issue asked 500 respondents if their companies employ a privacy officer — someone whose specific job is to oversee safeguarding consumer data acquired via or aggregated from the Web. The result: 13% said yes, and 80% — four out of five — respondents said no. (About 7% said they didn’t know.)

That’s not good enough. The Internet will provide growing opportunities to target-market to customers. But that information has to be requested with added value and fenced in with due care and respect. Why should I let you know where I am? Why shouldn’t I protest that you’re releasing any information about my purchases/searches/interactions on your Web site?

Without a good answer to those questions, marketers will find themselves staring down the barrel of some painful Do Not Follow legislation. As customers learn to live more and more online — something we all want, for its targeting potential and measurability — not thinking out proper data stewardship policies is more than foolhardy. It’s reckless.

On a side note, Chief Marketer welcomes the return of Sherry Chiger to the Penton fold as e-mail correspondent for both our magazine and the Direct Web site, as well as editor of the weekly “E-mail Essentials” newsletter. Sherry’s got distinct opinions about what works in e-mail, and we’re sure you’ll enjoy hearing them regularly.

We also think you’ll benefit from a new series of Marketing Essentials Webinars, 15-minute primers from our staff on the channels that marketers want to be in today. In fact, the first, on hot-button topics in e-mail, are up on the Chief Marketer site now. One quick registration will give you access to content as it is added through the year.

And yes, we promise to take proper care of your information.