I'm in the process of joining an exchange, I read the Privacy Policy and it all seems normal to me:
We will not sell, share, or rent personal information to others.
Sounds good right? Until you look above it where your referrer's email address is. Oh, but guess what, I didn't have a referrer. It gave me a random one (most likely upgraded). Oh look over here, I can load the page in and get another email address. Hey, looks like I can just keep loading the page and get every upgraded member's email address on your exchange. Cha ching!
Note that due to cookies, you won't see the random email if you simply refresh. And it doesn't matter if it's only supposed to show if your referrer sent you. It says right there that you won't share personal information. Your email address is personal.
Many exchanges are in the trend of sharing your referrals information as well. I wonder if their privacy policy reflects that. Most people don't read them, and most owners don't write them. Copy, paste, "we're good to go".
Well shameless plug, but StartXchange is part of the Sender Score Certified Program. They reviewed my Privacy Policy, and monitor my email practices. So you can be sure I do everything possible to keep your information from being shared ;-)
{ 29 comments }
Hey Tim.
If only other owners would follow your lead on that Privacy Policy it would make us more comfortable.
Thanks for giving us a dose of reality.
Have a great weekend dude!
Jimmy Adames
Truly food for thought! As a retired lawyer and judge I wonder how many lawyers that breach of contract could support for a long time. Truly most exchange owners and other website owners don’t give their legal sections a second thought. For some it has been expensive. I am a full time marketer in a sense. I am retired so marketing is what I do to occupy my time. As a result I study some of these things. I really appreciate your serious approach to these matters. Your blog is great. Keep up the good work.
Great info mister Linden, keep the good work up…:)
Thanks for pointing out that lack of Privacy you might have with some of the other sites. I will check the one’s I’m using for sure.
Gary
Hi Tim,
yet another great post! This is exactly the reason that I subscribe to your blog and read your posts as soon as I see the emails.
I must admit that I have not read the privacy statements but will do so in the future. It does raise the question do the owners actually know what is in their own privacy statements or did they just copy it from another source (as you state). Food for thought…
Guy
How about when owners start giving out your downline’s downline information … i.e. 5 levels deep?
I do not always comment but I always read Tim’s blog. fact is, like our mobile no’s are *supposed * to be private and yet we get spam sms’s, the same apply, whenever you type in your email address, you take a chance. I am with a very strict ISP that doesnt tolerate spam but I still use my dear gmail adress whenever I sign up for something new. Keep up the good work Tim
Great Post!
Yes, some sites do that… They should really just give you an option, to mail them through the mailer, but give them a warning, too.
I know about loads of sites where you can click on the name and the email address comes up.
That means anyone can abuse your email address 10 times daily!
Sounds bad enough!
Exactly Laura. And the exchanges that do that, it’s OK as long as they state it in their Privacy Policy. Because then well you should have read it and not joined if you didn’t want it shared to your upline ;-)
As a LFMTE script user I would like to pass on a warning to other LFMTE owners.
The “Terms” that everyone is technically agreeing to when they join are very inadequate and leave way to much uncovered, including a privacy policy.
As soon as I discovered this -weeks ago-so all can relax :) -I added a huge rider to my TE Terms, and I urge all owners to do the same.
Our members deserve our respect and their privacy,and while I am sure LFM had no bad intentions by having such a weak Terms, they need to be added to.
After all ,that is why the terms are so easy to edit.
Without this added protection no member is protected- imho.
Great Post Tim
I have just discovered that my own TE is guilty-and not by chose but by a design oversite.
It seems as if any member can see his downlines actual email address,as the script did not come with a downline mailer.
I will issue a warning to members never to abuse this and have also ordered the necessary correction to put in a downline emailer.
Thanks Tim- this would never have occurred to me without your post.
Update-attn LFMTE owners.
I am happy to report that with the help of J.O.E. doing the actual programming, there is now an easy and inexpensive downline mailer available to you.
This goes a long way of addressing much of the Privacy issue talked about- no longer can anyone find the email address of their’s or anyone’s downline.
Not at TrafficDelivers at least-thanks Tim for pointing out this flaw- I felt particularly concerned since you also joined us the same day as this post. :)
Feel free to contact me if anyone wants to get a hold of the great people at J.O.E.
I have also seen that and declined joining. There have been so many privacy breaches online over the years that I doubt there is much real privacy left.
I just had my email shared without my knowledge) to everyone on a owner’s list. None to happy bout that one. But the owner did say they were deleting the program that was used and canceling all names from the list? But who has already copied your name and email, to start sending you whatever? I am experiencing that currently. But nothing the delete button won’t handle, other than being a pain.
Great article Tim.
Wanda
Ours shows the referrers name (not email). Is that still considered a breach of privacy?
Yes – your Privacy Policy states you won’t share personal information. Name is personal as well.
Hello Tim,
This was such a good point that I had to go and check my on Traffic Exchange just to make sure that our member’s email addresses were protected.
We do protect our members email addresses.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
That’s good practice Tim! Love your work! Keep it up! Indeed, you’re a very responsible TE owner!
I am not a TEowner.I am a surfer of 20 exchanges and 9 safelists.When they say I will get a downline or they say I can “build my list” that is a joke.Without those details, I am building the owners list,not mine! If they encourage you to build a downline, I expect to see it.
It’s all in how you build your list. If you advertise a squeeze page with an opt-in form, you are building your list. If you promote other people’s pages and expect to pull emails from that, it’s not your list.
Even if their Privacy Policy allows them to share the email with you, you don’t have opt-in permission to send them emails. So they really aren’t on your list.
Hi Tim,
I believe that random referrals are a bad idea in general. Why should the owner of a traffic exchange pay commissions for their own advertising and branding efforts?
I did some split testing on my OTOs, and listing random referrals as a key feature had no impact on the conversions.
For me, random referrals take a huge part in my decision to take a OTO or not (or to upgrade or not).
Upgraded members pay a fee, and random referrals are a good way for the owner to thank them.
Just my 2 cents. :-)
Lucie
It was a huge selling point back in the day. I’m not sure if now people just assume they’ll get them for upgrading, or if it’s no longer a selling point. (people assume ALOT about upgrades)
That is interesting, I haven’t thought about members assuming the random referrals feature was built-in even though it wasn’t listed on the OTO.
However, I also haven’t received any complaints from members not receiving random referrals.
Hello Tim, now as i read your post, i remember such a case where a well known TE owner copied the Privacy Policy from “Traffic splash”… May be you know him…
All the best
Ivan Golemdzhiyski
I don’t recall the event, but it does happen frequently.
yeah, very frequent but to be totally fair, although Traffic-Splash’s terms were unique (when I wrote them) they weren’t completely original either.
When I started I took copies of ILoveHits, MaxTrafficPro, Dragonsurf and StartXchange. I then rewrote the Traffic-Splash terms based on those. I took the bits that were appropriate and added/changed wherever appropriate.
Some bits will look very similar to one or more of those sites, others less so.
I guess the difference is that, just like Tim, I took the care to do it properly and we take it seriously.
Hi Tim thanks for opening my eyes.
I am an owner and didn’t really think that much about it but thanks to you
I am glad I subscribe to your blog.
I will follow suit
Well Tim – you had me running over to check both my members privacy was protected and my TOS!
Like Paul – I have gathered info from many places and then added or edited or rewritten to suit my own TE – Im fine with that!
I am also very happy to say that when my members mail theri downline, they see no personal info at all – they just get a box to type their messages – and…. all they see as far as their referrals or downline goes is simply a member number – nothing else at all!
So I feel better but you had my heart pumping for a few…..lol
I am glad we have you to bring these imporatant issues to light!
I consider myself a very active owner but you cant know everything all the time – and also being that Im a technical retard, some things I dont know until its pointed out!
Great Post :)
Comments on this entry are closed.