Yesterday I got a real shock (well two, but that’s for another post).
I was eagerly awaiting the postman’s arrival for Eliza’s new duvet cover, so was a little disappointed when it didn’t arrive. What did arrive however was a large brown envelope with my full name and address.
Nothing strange in that I hear you saying?
In it was an A4 piece of paper with just a hashtag and the picture of the twitter bird in the middle. Nothing else – no marketing info, no leaflets, no nothing.
I was freaked out. How on earth had someone got my address. I am quite protective of my contact details and my Facebook page has a high security level and no contact details on it. I have handed out my card to PR’s at events but I can’t imagine they’d send so little information?
It didn’t take me long to search the company concerned on twitter and they informed me that it is very simple to search for addresses online and they’d found mine within minutes (although when I tried I couldn’t).
So, was this a genius bit of marketing? They did spark a conversation after all, or is it a step too far?
Everyone is always making comments about online security, I thought I was secure so I’m off to make sure my details are now and so should you!!
The difficulty is that even if you protect your online identity, you’ve still got the local council and bodies like the DVLA selling your name and address. What were the company in question selling?
discounted shopping
Ah I saw a lot of angry tweets about this last night. Aside from how they got details, it did spark a debate!
I caught the tail end of it – need to go for a proper read through!!
As someone who used to work for a tabloid newspaper, I know it just takes a bit of imagination to find someone. Before the internet, we used to look out wedding certificates/birth certificates etc to trace people’s last-known address.
Now people are filling out forms online, and their details are being passed to everyone and his uncle.
Since I’m earning a crust working for a telemarketing company, I’m always getting shouted at and asked “how did you get this number?” But people don’t realise that just doing a survey or entering an online competition can send their private details out to God knows who.
Eek! Step too far for me, definitely. I know it’s possible to get my address, but the fact they actually did it makes it creepy, even as an effective marketing strategy.