Take peoples money...

then scam them.

Great way to foster that consumer relationship.

From The Huffington Post.

Here's what's happening. Well known e-commerce companies have been sending post transaction marketing offers to consumers immediately after something is purchased. Consumers are offered cash back if they simply click a confirmation button. When they do, their credit card information is automatically passed on to a marketing company that signs them up for a credit card subscription for a package of useless services. The rebate is rarely paid. The U.S. Senate is not impressed.

Sounds dodgy doesn't it? Really unethical. The kind of thing only a really sleazy company would do, not a well known one like say...1800Flowers.com, Fandango, FTD, Orbitz, Priceline, Shutterfly, Buy.com, Barnes & Noble, Expedia, as well as many more.

It's kind of like the death of a thousand cuts. If so many well regarded and well known companies are out there finding underhanded ways to score a few more pennies from their customers, customers are going to migrate back to personal shopping where you see the person you're handing money to and have more control over your own data.

Insightful or unfortunate product placement?

You be the judge.

Billboards Watch You Watching Them

In Japan, NTT Communications has tackled the age-old problem of working out who's paying attention to which sign-based advertising by making the sign watch back. The Japanese company will run an experiment where webcam-equipped digital signs record what's going on then process the data to see how much attention each ad draws from passers by.


Starting in January in a Tokyo railway station, NTT will trial the technology on thousands of passer-by commuters. The system uses two cameras hooked up to a PC: It runs analysis software that computes how many people are in front of the sign, then matches an "averaged" Japanese face to each person to determine whether they're looking at the sign, and for how long.

The data from the system will, if analyzed properly, be invaluable to advertisers in analyzing the attention-grabbing value of particular adverts. NTT's content distribution system for digital will use data to help it select ads for signs appropriately. And though it's a taste of the future--a future of personalized dynamic ad placements that makes me shudder when I think of it--this system isn't exactly Big Brother: it doesn't attempt to identify individuals.

Yet.