Reading 1: “Should You Sell Your Digital Privacy?”
Harvard Business School professor John Deighton says that consumers are approaching privacy from the wrong angle. Instead of focusing solely on efforts to protect their identity, they should consider their identity a commodity they can sell to companies for better services based on their individual buying habits and preferences. A company that pays for your information will be more inclined to treat your information with care, Deighton reasons, because they’ve established a relationship with you. What do you think of this idea? How might it work in practice? Would you sell your identity in exchange for better services? Do you already?
March 10th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Wow. I never thought of it that way. I guess that when you do “sell” your identity you do get benefits– IE my CVS card etc. So, I guess in that respect it does work. I don’t get that many calls actually from telemarketers, or that much junk mail.
Still, somehow I’m wary of all this. I don’t like the idea of “selling” my identity. Last election, I put myself on the Kerry mailing list. Now, Obama supporters call me all the time with these robotic voices, trying to get me to vote for him. When I tell them that I already support Obama they soldier on, refusing to leave me alone until I finally get so annoyed that I hang up. So, in that case, I’d rather no one know my voting preference.
Still, I guess this “selling” is like establishing a relationship with the owner of a store or restaurant. You get benefits when people like you. But it’s like doing so blindly, which is weird and uncomfortable. People like their privacy, as I found trying to interview bloggers for my final project. Online, we expect anonymity. So, that seems like the difference. We go online to do things quickly, without dealing with people, so I guess we’re less inclined to give up our identities.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:06 am
It sounds good on the surface, but there are several things that occurred to me when reading this that I think would make selling your identity a problem.
If what companies are interested in is your personal characteristics correlated to your interests- what happens when those change? Do I get to sell my identity again if I change from a poor college student who likes the Gap to a millionaire who only eats organic food?
Another consideration is if you can afford to keep your identity private, wouldn’t you? Although the professor is arguing that he likes Amazon to know what he reads, I wouldn’t. If companies are relying on people who are perhaps less economically stable there could be potential abuses if people do not know better or have the resources to fight against a company who misused their information.
Also, isn’t the coveted information about people who have a lot of money to spend so companies can figure out how to get them to spend it on their goods? If you had a lot of money to spend why would you sell your identity? I guess I just don’t see how this works.
March 10th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I liked the author’s distinction between privacy as a right and identity as a commodity. However, when people express anger over “identity theft,” I think they mean not only that their name and credit card number were stolen, but that their privacy was invaded in some way too (maybe by creditors calling them to collect on bills that aren’t theirs, or by thieves rifling through their garbage). So the distinction only goes so far.
I didn’t agree with his assertion that registering for customer-loyalty cards can save you money. On the surface it’s true, but in my experience, it seems like such cards just give stores an excuse to raise regular prices. And I’ve shopped at grocery stores without cards and found the prices to be comparable to the sale prices at stores with cards.
On the other hand, I can see how selling your identity would benefit customers by letting stores know which products they want and which ones they don’t. This could theoretically cut down on waste and make shopping easier (I tend to get overwhelmed when I go to the drugstore and see 25 varieties of jelly beans). Of course, some people will probably always get left out, and if I’m the only person buying my favorite kind of jelly beans, I’ll still be out of luck.
March 10th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I think it completely makes sense. But then again, I don’t have a landline, so I’m not a victim of telemarketers. When signing up for some frequent shopper program, I typically leave the phone field blank. I don’t really mind the e-mails, and usually they have coupons.
To me, it’s completely worth it to be a Dominick’s member. Sure, while I agree with Cathy that they probably raise the regular prices in order to mark it down for members, why wouldn’t I want to play along and pay the lower price?
As far as knowing our preferences, I can speak with some knowledge about this, as in a previous life I was in fact a SPAMmer. The customers sign up with you and typically indicate their profession and/or what types of services they’re interested in. As a company, you can then tailor your advertisements for them. In this way, it actually benefits the customer. For instance, I worked for a book publisher. When a customer signed up for the email list and indicated he was a school counselor and interested in lay texts, I wouldn’t send him email updates on our medical texts. In that way, it prevented him from getting a ton of emails he didn’t care about and would immediately discard. It works both ways.
While I realize that a lot of programs are only there to lure customers to their company exlusively (ie, American Airlines’ miles program), many of them are, in fact, actually beneficial for the customer as well. So instead of thinking of it as being duped by big business, I agree with Deighton that we might as well go with it and reap the benefits.
March 10th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Cynical, cruel and weak. He completely omits the point that regular folks have very little choice in getting the Jewel card, the frequent shopper points and so on.
It’s getting harder for people to get by and any possible discount can’t really be seen as a benefit. It’s more of a necessity. The two-working-parent families still struggling to make rent don’t have as much choice in getting the Dominick’s discount as, say, a Harvard professor might have in letting Amazon know what he likes.
Also, is anyone surprised that the business professor came to the conclusion that market forces will fix the problem? It just seems like people who follow the purely economic view of the world end up “discovering” that the market is the solution to EVERY problem. Adam Smith’s hand isn’t just invisible - it’s magic. And I’m among those think it’s giving us the finger, too.
Anyway, that last graf covers my cheap shots for the posting.
In general, I was not impressed by the reading. There was no new information and the “startling idea” is the same idea Jewel, Dominick’s and Amazon came up with when they started the programs Deighton praises.
I get that Deighton likes having Amazon know what he likes. In fact, that’s all I got from this reading.
March 10th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
When I moved to D.C., I refused to get a Giant card (the local grocery chain, similar to Jewel Osco). Mainly it was because the desk where you sign up was not by the check stands and I always forgot until I was in line, but I like to think it was also because I have some fear of big brother watching. So I resisted for about five of the seven months I lived there. Then I finally caved and joined and saved like $10 on my purchase that day. $10 (!!!) Do you have any idea how much $10 means to me these days? Simply put: $10 means a lot. So if I could have saved $10 on every other purchase throughout those five months I would have saved about $60-$70. That is a pair of shoes. 30 trips to Starbucks. Two concert tickets. Ok, I better stop this or I will start to question my spending habits. But in all honestly I will take the $10 discount over not having a store know what brand of yogurt I prefer.
Along those lines, I have always wondered what a company has to gain by tracking my grocery store purchases. What do they have to gain from learning I like whole wheat English muffins, Simply Orange orange juice and light Philadelphia cream cheese? I have never understood this, and wish the article would have answered my question. Maybe this makes me an easier target for marketers who are seeking to capitalize on my consumer preferences, but I still don’t see the point or problem. Would they try to change me from a consumer of Philadelphia brand cream cheese to a different brand? (Not gonna happen – I am very brand loyal). Or just target me with ads for products I am already loyal to? I just don’t see the point.
So, that being said, I didn’t think this article had much merit. I really didn’t get the point of selling your identity. I mean I guess if it is already out there than you may as well profit from it. But how much of your identity do you have to sell? Knowing my preferences at a grocery store is one thing, but I’m not too comfortable with anything more personal than that.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
I found a lot of people in the class brought up many really good points. Some that I saw and some that I didn’t. I not an extremely private person and have few secrets I keep from those I know, but that is very different from letting a stranger know about me. I feel like Anna that I would hate to just be put into a category when i am constantly changing. There are so many things that I don’t even know about myself, so how can I sell that to a company?
I also don’t understand what some of that information can get them. It might make sense for Amazon to let me know when the latest Harry Potter book comes out since I bought the last one or whatever, but I’ve never been very brand loyal or anything so for a CVS or Jewels to track my buying doesn’t make sense to me. I guess big business works in mysterious ways!
March 10th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
This article seemed to be advocating consumers’ taking back some control over the value of their personal information, but I didn’t find that it gave very practical advice on how to do it.
It seems to be entirely in the hands of the businesses. It makes sense that they’d want to offer incentives for people to give up information about themselves. Otherwise none of us would get out of that checkout line and waste five minutes at the customer service desk doling it out.
But that doesn’t give me license to approach businesses and haggle with them over the right to keep records of my purchases. It’s entirely up to the store whether they’d like to raise prices and force me to sign up for a discount card.
March 11th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Deighton thinks that the company will treat your information with care once you’ve sold your soul to them? I really disagree with this. The company may send you offers for items similar to those you purchased, which a lot of companies do. For instance, when I get a receipt at the grocery store, there’s often a coupon that gets printed out along with it. If I bought Cheerios, then the coupon may be for another General Mills cereal. These coupons are great!
But, I’ve found that giving my identity to a company also means my information may be sold to other companies. I detest getting e-mails from companies I’ve never done business with. Rather than attracting me to shop at their store, the company who sent the e-mail has only annoyed me to the point of avoiding their store.
March 12th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I agree with Sarah and Anna on the issue of my changing preferences, but I guess the more you use things like Jewel cards the more they can keep track of your preferences.
I also agree with Christina on the companies treating consumers’ identities with respect. I’m a little bit leery of handing corporate America my identity card and telling them hey, here’s all my information! I want to be able to control when that happens.
Companies I can trust and respect I might allow to have this information. But with companies like Enron that really misuse customer and employee money and identity, absolutely not. What about a company like Halliburton? There’s another one I wouldn’t want looking at my business.
March 14th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Katie took the words out of my mouth - it’s all well and good to say we have the power, but what should we DO to control our own privacy? Or to decide when and how to sell it as a priority? As a service-magazine-y thinker, I was disappointed in the celebratory yay-market tone that didn’t take into account that I don’t have a choice but to sign up for the Jewel card or let Amazon peak into my book preferences. (Incidentally, Amazon is always recommending books about wars or the economy, because I use it to buy assigned reading.) It’s not so much that I benefit from having a CVS card, but rather that I’d be punished for not giving up my name, number and email address.
It reminds me of Facebook and how you can now become a “fan” of products, and then that product tailors its advertising to your networks by saying “Hey, Andi’s a fan of it!” It’s one thing for me to express preferences to people I know and trust. If strangers out there can learn all about my likes and dislikes, I feel like they can know too much about me without actually having to KNOW me. And then they can somehow use it in some creepy epic evil scheme.
I realize that last paragraph grew increasingly vague, but to sum up, I’d like to think of my privacy as a right, not a commodity, because once you’ve sold it off, it’s totally out of your hands how it’s used.
March 14th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I definitely see advantages and disadvantages to having companies knowing who you are and what you like to buy. I love Amazon.com’s recommendations for me (other than, as Andrea mentioned, the random textbook-related recs for books about gentrification, transsexuality, etc.), and Peapod’s site allows me to access old grocery shopping lists so I can remind myself to get those frozen waffles I liked a few months ago, or whatever.
But sometimes it can turn creepy. The computers at CVS, for example, seem to know more about me every time I visit. When I got my CVS card a few years ago, I’d receive coupons for everything from vitamins to laundry detergent to chapstick. Nowadays they seem to know me a little TOO well, and I’d almost rather not describe the variety of coupons I receive based on my repeated purchases of items like, for example, tampons or Doritos. If you are what you receive in CVS coupons, I’ve gone from a happy-go-lucky freshman to a PMSing, binge-eating graduate student.