My privacy bugbear
Published July 26th, 2007 in PersonalA man walks into a grocery store and the sales assistant behind the counter greets him by his first name, places his daily order on the counter and helps him with the bags to his car. The man smiles to himself about what a wonderful shopping experience he just had.
It’s a pretty positive customer experience. So why do we complain about the information search engines store on us in order to provide us with a better service? Do I get annoyed at the sales assistant for knowing my first name or helping me with my shopping? No. So I’m not going to get annoyed at an algorithm designed to learn from my search behaviour and do its job better by providing me with results I’m interested in.
12 Responses to “My privacy bugbear”
- 1 Pingback on Jul 27th, 2007 at 10:16 am
- 2 Pingback on Feb 24th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
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I think there’s a difference between a shop or sales assistant knowing your name and daily order of food and a company knowing your name, location, likes, dislikes, hobbies and interests.
Piaras, I think the problems most people have revolve around the issue of scale, and the issue of data sharing. In the grocery store example, you’re right, great shopping experience. What if the clerk then followed you down the street to the pharmacy and watched what you bought there and kept a list? And then how about if he walked up to the pharmacist as you bought some aspirin and whispered “Hey, he just bought a case of Guinness and bags of crisps at my store. I think he’s going to get a really big headache from the party he’s having, so he REALLY needs that aspirin. Try charging him more!” It becomes a different matter, no?
Know what you mean guys but what do you think those loyalty ards are designed to do
Very true. But loyalty cards are totally opt-in, not surreptitiously opt-out.
True
To have a good customer experience you don’t need to give away any your privacy for it.
Massive difference between “analog” unshared local knowledge and digital profiling. None of the examples you gave have much to do with privacy either. He volunteered his name at some stage. It is his identifier which most people will share with those they interact with. His shopping list is public knowledge if he has shopped in the store and gotten those items before. Helping him with his bags has nothing to do with privacy.
Would you think the same person would like if their pharmacist said “Hi Mr. X, here for some herpes cream again? I’ve already lined it up for you and also your order for viagra.” Would he mind if all this data about him was stored in a large database if the Pharmacy was a large chain?
Dennis Deery’s first point is a valid one - even if a shop monitors me via a loyalty card and knows exactly what food I bought to eat on any given week, it’s still a very limited range in what I am.
Throw in some career details, hobbies, likes, thoughts, opinions, favourite music, movies, books etc. and it’s a different story.
Except for the fact that a number of retailers are starting to branch out in terms of their offerings, so it’s not just food but what CDs, DVDs, clothes, etc you’re buying. Happens off and online.
The herpes comment gotten you held up in moderation there Damien. Something along the lines of what you’ve said has been discussed in a parlimentary debate in the UK through a loyalty card scheme. The example used was an alcoholic getting discounts on booze.
I think there’s a difference between a shop or sales assistant knowing your name and daily order of food and a company knowing your name, location, likes, dislikes, hobbies and interests.
Agree!