How Private is Your Information?
Banks and credit
card companies have been gathering information about your
spending habits and locations for years. Some banks will be so
kind as to send you a categorized summary each month of how you
spent your money. If they are keeping track of it in the
manner for you, then what else are they doing with the
information?
Grocery store
courtesy cards gather enough information about your purchases
that could be used to market additional products to you, or used
against you. By offering consumers a discount for
disclosing their personal buying habits, the grocery stores can
gather information that can
When you signup for
their customer appreciation program to
receive exclusive savings and other offers, how
many people actually receive your information. It may only start
with your name and address, however, many of them now ask for
your phone number and your email address. I use a special
email address for any of these programs I enroll into and I
watch how many new, unsolicited, emails I start receiving.
Until recently I was receiving
phone calls from a merchant stated he was affiliated with my
credit card provider, and he had additional offers I might be
interested in. He would give me the last four digits of my
credit card number as verification that was meant to prove he
was legitimate. I called my credit card company, and write a
letter to confirm, that I was not pleased about this practice.
They told me that as long as I had their card, they were
authorized, and stated in the fine print of their contract, that
they could share marketing information about me to selected
affiliates of their choice. The only way to stop the practice
was to not have their card. I no no longer have their card.
A few weeks ago
ABC News reported that
companies secretly
gather social media info and sell it to banks, lenders and
others for their marketing and investigative purposes.
Personal information is more
accessible than it has ever been and the availability is
increasing. Companies use your information to market products to
you, determine if you are credit worthy, a viable employee or
what discounts to give you on insurance and other services.
All the more reason
to be diligent on what you post online and share with others.
Share on FriendFeed
**
About the Author, Sumner M. Davenport
Sumner is an Results Coach, Niche & Multi-Channel Internet
Marketing Consultant, Best Selling Author and
Speaker.
Her deepest passion is to see
people empowering others while living the life of their dreams.
As a Coach she
employs a unique method of clarifying goals which assists her clients to break
out of their habitual box of thinking and planning. She can be
reached through her website:
http://SumnerDavenport.com
Follow on FriendFeed:
