I suspect that corporate America must hate me: I do not have an air miles card, I do not own any frequent purchase/discount/loyalty cards and I do not sign up to any of the retailers’ email distribution lists. My reasoning has always been my privacy is worth a lot more than the small savings I get from these cards. In the case of air miles cards, I wonder if I would ever be eligible for a free flight in peak season.
I had drinks with a friend last week who brought home this point. He once worked for a drug store that has a loyalty card; every time you bought something, you swiped the card for points which could be redeemed in the future. However, there’s a catch. Before privacy legislation was enacted, the drug store use to sell all this information they collected to third parties and then he finished this thought by making this observation: imagine what this drug store knows about you- when and what drugs you buy, when you buy birth-control/tampons/wart cream/Preparation H, whether you have dry hair or oily hair- the most personal and intimate information about you all for sale to the highest bidder.
Yikes.
Whenever someone complains that the government is acting like big brother, I always think how much more information private business knows about us and, worse, makes a profit off this information without sharing it with us- the provider of all this useful information. Here are a couple of tips to minimize the amount of information you give out to business:
1. Read the fine print
Privacy legislation does not generally mean that a private individual or business cannot sell your information to a third party. They just have to ask you now politely. Before you sign up for anything, read the fine print and see how they will use your information. Is it merely for providing the good or service purchased? Can they provide this information to their related companies? Can they sell this information for profit?
Special care should be taken where the good or service you are being provided is basically free in nature (think of things like Facebook and loyalty cards). In some cases, the business is providing the good/service free in order to make money on the back-end by selling your information. Think carefully on whether this “free” good/service is worth it.
2. Stop signing up for everything (except this blog)
Do you want to know why you get spam, junk mail, mail order catalogs from places you have never heard of before? Somewhere along the way, you signed your life away and allowed a third party provider to sell your information. In some cases, it is blatantly unfair- you have to sign up for an essential service and the service provider sells your information down the road (tele-communications companies are notorious for this. On a side-note, Bell Canada has just been rewarded with the contract to administer the Canadian version of the Do Not Call List. Please insert your own joke here).
The truth is you cannot avoid your information being sold. You can’t live in modern society without some private business knowing something about you and selling it (with your consent in 5 point font). However, you can minimize the damage by not signing up for everything.
3. Get Yourself on a Do Not Call List
‘Nuff said. The Do Not Call list in the U.S. can be found here. Canada’s version is coming soon but you can drive a truck through the loop-holes and, as stated above, it is being administered by a private business (blame the CRTC).
4. Know what someone has on you
In jurisdictions where privacy legislation exists, there is usually a provision which allows an individual to request a third party to reveal what information they have on you. Every business also has a privacy officer (the terms change from jurisdiction to jurisdiction) which must handle all privacy matters. If in doubt, request this. It could help you in ways you did not think.
For example, if you are part of a cell-phone/internet plan, you have a right to know your usage. Since many plans charge more fees based on greater usage, knowing this information about yourself is critical in ensuring you are not being taken advantage of. Most providers will list your usage but, for those who don’t, it pays to know what your usage is.
If you are going to apply for a loan at your bank, request all the information they have on you before you do so. They may have an inaccurate or outdated piece of information about you which may affect your ability to get a loan or a loan at a cheaper rate.
It is always best to request this information and compare it with the company’s privacy policy. If they have information on you which is not stated on their privacy policy as a permitted use, you have a right to have that information removed.
In matters of privacy, it always pays to be in the know and this is one of those subjects where common sense goes a long way.