FC: AccuCard/Corex replies to Politech, pledges to protect privacy

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:
"Jim Harper replies to AccuCard service, privacy invasion, marketing"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-04840.html

FYI Corex==Cardscan.net==Accucard.

-Declan

---

From: "Weyman, Peter" <Weyman () corex com>
To: "'Jim Harper - Privacilla.org'" <jim.harper () privacilla org>,
   declan () well com
Cc: hmurray () suespammers org
Subject: RE: AccuCard Service: More privacy invasion (and viral marketing?
        )
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 13:33:21 -0400
MIME-Version: 1.0

Jim:

Thank you for sending this on. Just to be very clear, Corex:

 . will *never* rent or sell your personal information
   to any other party.
 . will *never* rent or sell the personal information
   of your business contacts.
 · will *never* use your personal information, or that
   of your contacts in a way that we don't tell you
   about *before* you give us the information.

You make a good point about our privacy statement, and I'll
endeavor to have the statement updated to make it very clear
that: /i/ we will use information only in accordance with the
privacy policy under which the information was collected, and
/ii/ we will provide ample notice if a change is made.

Regards,
Peter.

Peter J Weyman
Vice President, R&D
Corex Technologies Corp.
Cambridge, MA  02139

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Harper - Privacilla.org 
[<mailto:jim.harper () privacilla org>mailto:jim.harper () privacilla org]
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 12:20 PM
To: declan () well com
Cc: hmurray () suespammers org; privacy () corex com
Subject: RE: AccuCard Service: More privacy invasion (and viral
marketing?)

Declan:

As we've seen, there are security risks when data is centralized, but the
privacy problem here is not with AccuCard.  It is with Hal Murray's friend,
who entrusted information about him to AccuCard in violation of Hal's
personal privacy policy.

AccuCard's privacy statement is industry standard, and pretty good.  Key
part:
"Corex Technologies will not sell, share, rent or license your personal
information. Corex does not give out personally identifiable information
collected from our users to others. The foregoing policy is subject to Corex
Technologies' obligation to release information pursuant to judicial or
other governmental subpoenas warrants or orders."

[It also has industry standard weaknesses: "Corex Technologies reserves the
right to amend this policy at any time.  Any changes or amendments to the
policy will be posted on our website." The policy should state clearly that
changes will only apply to data collected after the policy change, and it
should commit to substantial (by e-mail, perhaps) notice of policy changes.]

I can see both the security concerns and the benefits these services (there
are a number) hold out.  I have several friends who use these services, and
I have found that it neither bothers me, nor pleases me.  I do not regard it
as a privacy threat, much less invasion, for my friends and colleagues to
enter basic contact information about me into an online address book.

Whether these services catch on will depend in part on whether the privacy
preferences of people like me or people like Hal predominate.  There's no
right or wrong in a subjective area like this.  It will be interesting to
watch cultural norms in this corner of the online world develop.

Jim Harper
Editor
Privacilla.org


---

To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Cc: Hal Murray <hmurray () suespammers org>
Subject: AccuCard Service: More privacy invasion (and viral marketing?)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 09:33:10 -0700
From: Hal Murray <hmurray () suespammers org>

Are you aware of Cardscan.net and their AccuCard Service?  Info at
www.cardscan.net.

I recently received email from a friend, or rather from cardscan.net on
behalf of my friend asking me to update my info.  It seems as though there
is one more company in the business of collecting info on everybody.

Cardscan makes software and hardware for keeping track of business cards.
Seems like a good idea.  But they let you keep your info about me on their
web site.  Great.  Just what I wanted.  Another company I didn't even know
about keeping track of me.

     When you update your contact information, your updates will
     be communicated back to me, as well as any other users of the
     service that already know you (they already have your email
     address and a portion of your contact information). This saves
     you time and effort, and ensures that all your contacts have your
     latest information.

     This service is secure and private.

Right.  I wonder when some emarketer will figure out how to take advantage
of it.  Or headhunters if the economy gets going again.

I wonder when this will get tied into C/R systems. :)





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