Have you ever participated in a client or customer satisfaction survey? If you have visited some of Canada’s large retailers recently, you may have been enticed into filling in an online survey about your shopping experience.  By completing the survey, you have the chance to win a prize, gift card, earn extra points on a loyalty card, get a free latte or be eligible for some other “free” gift.  However, you may also be (knowingly or unknowingly) saying “Yes” to the collection, use and potential disclosure of your private, personal information.  That free latte may be costing more than you think.

For instance, filling out a survey offered by your favourite burger joint could mean a mailbox full of unwanted advertising from your favourite burger joint, but also from soft drink companies, junk food makers, local fitness centres, magazines, weight loss programs, housecleaning services…you get the point. Is it really worth $1 off your French fries?

Surveys are definitely not new; market research techniques such as focus groups, surveys and mystery shopping are all designed to help organizations figure out what you like, why you like it, how they could improve it and if you would recommend it to a friend. However, advances in technology have made it very easy to design, develop, analyze, store and distribute results of online surveys.  It is the ease of survey development and the wealth of personal information marketers can collect, use and store about you which have led to concerns about privacy.

To better protect your private and personal information when completing online surveys, you may want to keep the following points in mind:

• Always read the fine print, no matter how dull: savvy marketers continuously try to find creative ways to collect, use and share your private information.  Read privacy policies, fine print and the text before or after any check boxes and know exactly what you are agreeing to.
• Check the defaults: many online surveys are developed to allow the maximum level of collection and use of your information.  They use language like “we may, on occasion share your information with our partners” accompanied by a check box, which is often already checked for you.
• Make sure the information you are providing is necessary: contact information such as your name, phone number, email or street address may be required to notify you if you win a prize and basic demographic information such as age and gender will help marketers to meaningfully break down and use the data.  However, you may not want to provide any other “optional” extra personal information if it not necessary to complete the survey or claim your gift.
• Keep the purpose of the survey in mind: the purpose behind the survey may not be what they tell you.  Instead, marketers may be using the survey to influence what you think of a particular product; survey questions may be deliberately worded to manipulate your impressions and build positive brand associations for their product.

For more tips on safeguarding your privacy, please check out the Media Awareness Network’s tip sheet.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 11:31 am by E.M. Stark and is filed under privacy online. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.