Between the SEC deciding that your name has enough value that signing up for "free" stock qualifies as a sale, the Pentium III serial number PR flop, and companies "giving away" computers in exchange for demographic information, privacy has been at the forefront of many discussions recently.
While I'm your usual paranoid libertarian when it comes to governments getting private information, if I could guarantee that the authorities wouldn't get their hands on it I'd happily pass on everything I know about me to any marketing organization that could make a difference.
You see, I get a gazillion offers from FirstUSA for credit cards. If they'd just piece together a small piece of the information publicly available on me I'm sure they could figure out that I read the fine print, don't switch services a lot, and only carry debt when I forget to pay off in full.
In other words, if they sent me an offer for a card with a single digit interest rate and no annual fee, terms that aren't going to change for a long time, zero minimum payment for the first month or two billing cycle, they might have my attention. Until then they're just wasting trees and my time.
Heck, I'll even give them my medical records if they'll promise not to send me another one of those 3.9% for the first 15 minutes cards until after I have a lobotomy.
Imagine if all of the junk mail you got every day were things you might actually be interested in? I probably spend at a minute a day tossing crap I'm not interested in. That's 6 hours a year. I don't know what your time is worth but that could add up, and I probably lose stuff I might be interested in because I cull harshly.
It'd also be great if all the telephone solicitors could put a "acts rude to every unsolicited call" tag next to my name and not bother to call.
And how about an "it's a hobby" and "setup an ISP from spare parts and a Linux CD" in the InterNIC whois database? It's probably a pipe dream that it'd take care of all of those offers to register me with search engines, or redesign my site, or cut down on the number of AOL CDs?
But there's another side to this. More of our life than we think is advertising supported. From the obvious ads on television and in magazines to the less obvious product placement in super markets. Top rated television shows fail because advertisers think that they aren't interested in the demographics the shows attract. CBS falls prey to this all the time. What if there were an easy way to say "I watch Jeopardy and don't have incontinence problems or gas"? Well, okay, at least not incontinence problems. Or point out that I'll never see their name in a stadium, but pay careful attention to sponsors of state and national parks?
Let's get cooperative here. I've got a reasonable disposable income. I've got leisure time. I've got things I'm interested in buying and I'm sick of people wasting my time. And I know I'm not the only one. Anyone out there interested in efficient marketing? Selling product while saving money? Let's talk.
Friday, February 19th, 1999 danlyke@flutterby.com