Bad Privacy Policy

The issue of privacy has often come up lately in the media. Privacy advocates have concerns about the amount of personal information aggregated by companies like Facebook and Google and shared with third parties.

The concerns are legitimate, and although I am not as concerned as much as the advocates, it is always on the back of my mind when I provide personal information online. So why this rant?

I think that these companies have VERY BAD PRIVACY policy. Many companies make you Opt Out of their sharing of your personal data. Many companies require that you give them a reasonable amount of personal information to conduct business. The problem is that they often will turn around and monetize this data by selling your personal information to third party affiliates and non-affiliates.

One example of a company and this process is MLB.com. I am a big baseball fan, and I have purchased several products through the MLB.com site. What does MLB.com do to such a great customer? They provide my information to third parties. I was somewhat tolerant of this process until recently when I received an email from Bank of America via MLB.com. I have a justifiable intense animosity for Bank of America and their egregious business practices. I immediately clicked the link provided in the email to opt out of the Bank of America email list. Low and behold, the process was broken, and I was given an error every time I tried to opt out. I don't believe that it was intentional by either MLB.com or Bank of America, but I can tell you it is indicative of Bank of America and their customer service.

Another example of this was a recent letter I received from Santander Consumer USA for a loan that was transferred to them from CitiFinancial Auto. I have little control of this process, so unless I just pay off the loan ahead of schedule, I am forced to abide by their business policy and privacy policy. Now what Santander Consumer USA is doing is perfectly legal, but that does not make it "good business." Santander will (unless you are a resident of California and or Vermont) automatically Opt in your account. You are required to mail in a form to Santander Consumer USA to opt out. There is no option via the telephone or online.

I don't know that it is necessary for states to pass new laws, but instead the best practice of companies should be to opt out of your account and make it easy for users to opt in. They could market the benefits and let consumers opt in on their own.

I, for one, will continue to take my business to companies that automatically opt out of your account (like my local bank) and will avoid companies that continue to monetize my personal information.

Photo by Icons8 Team.