|
BY DAN GILLMOR Mercury News Technology Columnist
I used to think America Online was merely tone-deaf
when it came to its customers' privacy. I was wrong. The world's biggest
online service is just plain arrogant.
Consider the following message, which I and quite
a few other customers received a couple of weeks ago:
'America Online, Inc. offers valuable products and
services to you by mail. Our relationships with other companies often
allow us to offer unique products and services to you at discounted prices.
"Previously, you indicated to AOL that you
preferred not to receive these valuable offers through the mail. Your
preference is due to expire December 8th, 1999. If you would like to begin
receiving these special offers, simply do nothing now. If you want to
renew your current preferences so you will not receive these offers, please
go to the AOL Marketing Preferences area now [Keyword: Marketing Preferences
or Keyword: Choice].
"Should you wish to change your preferences
at any time in the future, you may do so by going to the AOL Marketing
Preferences area. Please note that this screen name can not accept e-mail
replies.
"Thank you.''
Well, thanks for nothing, AOL.
I take that back. Thanks for object lesson in how
not to treat customers.
Let's deconstruct this little missive.
As AOL itself acknowledges, I had already taken
the trouble to make my wishes clear on this issue: I said I didn't want
any marketing material from AOL or anyone with whom AOL does business.
I'd gone into the Marketing Preferences area of AOL and clicked through
a batch of annoying menus.
This was called, in the jargon favored by direct
marketers, an "opt-out'' system -- forcing customers to go to the
trouble of telling a company with which they do business that they don't
want to be bothered by marketing materials, either from the company itself
or any other business to which the company may sell, trade or rent its
mailing list.
Opt-out is bad enough, because it puts the onus
where it doesn't belong, on the customer. Opt-in, where customers have
to say they want to be on mailing and calling lists, would be a better
approach. But corporate America, defending its right to treat your personal
information as a commodity, loathes even the mention of opt-in.
OK, so I'd opted out at AOL. That wasn't good enough,
as we've seen.
Until I received the message above, I had no idea
that my preferences would expire. AOL told News.com, an online technology
news service, that the expiration of marketing preferences was part of
a "terms of service'' revision it posted some time ago.
That's what people call sneak-ware: a stealth revision
that practically no consumer will notice. Online services are joining
credit-card issuers, who raise interest rates and impose new charges in
fine-print billing inserts, as the most notorious purveyors of this stuff.
Now look at the penultimate sentence in AOL's message.
As the company guessed, many readers of this message were getting more
furious the more they read. So AOL said, effectively, don't bother replying
-- we won't accept your mail.
Even though I use AOL less and less these days,
I've been hanging onto an account. AOL has dial-up numbers all over the
United States and in many foreign countries, so I've found it handy when
I travel.
That advantage has all but disappeared. Other online
providers are now serving frequent travelers.
AOL didn't want this customer's e-mail response
to its arrogant policy. The company did accept my phone call on Monday,
when I canceled my account.
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/columns/gillmor/docs/dg113099.htm
| 