Some good news in the battle against telemarketers:

Nat’l Do Not Call Sign Up Starts in July

Mar 26, 5:17 AM (ET)

By DAVID HO

WASHINGTON (AP) – People fed up with unwanted telemarketing can sign up in July for a national do-not-call list that will block many sales calls, the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday.

The FTC will launch a Web site on July 1 so consumers can register online for the free service, the agency said.

In the past I’ve been of two minds about this kind of thing.  It offends my libertarian sensibilities.  However, the plague of telemarketers finally convinced me that intervention was needed in this area.  Those deceptive bastards were incapable of policing themselves.  It reached the point where I wouldn’t answer the phone if I didn’t recognize the name or number on the caller ID.  My phone would ring four or five times each evening (and I would often come home to see that there had been about the same number of calls during the day).  Now that I’m on the Texas do not call list I hardly ever get sales calls anymore.  Perhaps now I’ll be able to eradicate those final few that think they’re immune to Texas law.

Hat tip to my friend Rodney for emailing this article.

I can’t verify this yet, as it is an advance blurb for a planned “investigative report” on a Phoenix TV station (ABC Channel 15, KNX-TV).  Here’s the meat of the story:

Curt Avallone, Vice President for Marketing and New Technology at Ahold-owned Stop & Shop (the largest grocery chain on the east coast), admits that Stop & Shop has developed software to analyze the eating habits of individual shoppers, converting their shopper card records into detailed nutritional and dietary profiles. 

Apparently, it was quite expensive to develop the software, so to recoup expenses the company plans to share the data with several HMO’s, Avallone reveals.

Why doesn’t this surprise me?  It was only a matter of time (if true, that is).

See the “MORE” section for the full email alert.

Update:(2/26/2003)  This morning I got an email that the news report did not include the statements from Avallone.  So the above is definitely unconfirmed.

PHOENIX ANTI-CARD BOMBSHELL AIRS TONIGHT:
LANDS AHOLD DEEPER IN HOT WATER

The ABC affiliate in Phoenix will air explosive footage tonight of a
major Ahold supermarket executive admitting to planned abuses of his
store’s shopper card database. (Details on news program below.)

Curt Avallone, Vice President for Marketing and New Technology at
Ahold-owned Stop & Shop (the largest grocery chain on the east coast),
admits that Stop & Shop has developed software to analyze the eating
habits of individual shoppers, converting their shopper card records
into detailed nutritional and dietary profiles.

Apparently, it was quite expensive to develop the software, so to recoup
expenses the company plans to share the data with several HMO’s,
Avallone reveals.

CASPIAN has been warning shoppers for years of this very development.

Curt Avallone is the same man who recently boasted of Stop & Shop’s
plans to utilize “tracking technology in store ceilings [that] could
pinpoint a customer’s whereabouts and. . .cross-reference special offers
with personal data.” [1]

In addition, the Stop & Shop chain recently intoduced RFID-based
“Speedpass” payment technology into three of its Boston-area stores —
the only supermarket chain in the nation to do so. Shoppers can now
“wave” their Speedpass “wands” to pay for their groceries instandly
through an automatic credit card charge or checking account deduction.
Since the Speedpass is linked with the store’s data collection card
program, those who participate have their purchases automatically
recorded in Stop & Shop’s database. [2][3]

Stop & Shop has fared quite poorly in CASPIAN pricing surveys in the
past. Perhaps all the money the chain has invested in misguided tracking
and surveillance technologies explains why their prices are consistently
higher than their competitors. That and a little problem with corporate
ethics… (see next story)

Sources:
[1] http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,3959,43528,00.asp
[2] http://www.speedpass.com/news/article.jsp?id=55
[3] http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/030212/120397_1.html

=========================================================================
ABC NEWS PROGRAM DETAILS – WATCH TONIGHT!

If you are in the Phoenix area, you can watch the story tonight at 10:00
PM on ABC Channel 15 (KNX-TV). The segment will include footage of last
week’s protest against Safeway stores in Phoenix, along with interviews
with CASPIAN founder Katherine Albrecht and CASPIAN volunteer Alan
Stang.

If you are not in the Phoenix area, you can view the segment in
streaming video once it is made available at KNXV-TV’s website at:

The Investigators: “Card Tricks”
http://www.abc15.com/

=========================================================================

AHOLD: THE NEXT “ENRON”

Who is controlling the data collected on Stop & Shop customers? Not the
sort of people you would want to trust with intimate details on your
family’s eating habits, apparently.

Royal Ahold, the Dutch-based multinational supermarket corporation that
owns Stop & Shop, Giant, Bi-Lo, and Tops Markets, stunned Wall Street
yesterday with revelations that it has engaged in accounting fraud
rivalling that of (former) energy giant Enron.

Ahold’s stock went into freefall over the disclosure of massive
accounting fraud, losing over 60% of its value and being downgraded to
“junk status” in a single day. Ahold stock is currently trading below
$3.50 a share, down from a high last year of over $26.00.

Ahold’s board of directors has fired the company’s CEO and chief
financial officer, and faces massive class action lawsuits filed by at
least two law firm stemming from its fraudulent practices.

This is a company that clearly can’t be trusted to tell the truth to its
shareholders – can we trust it to tell the truth to its customers?

=========================================================================
Withdraw your support of ethically challenged grocery corporations
BOYCOTT AHOLD-OWNED STOP & SHOP, GIANT, BI-LO, AND TOPS CHAINS!
=========================================================================

CASPIAN – Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering
A national consumer organization opposing supermarket “loyalty” cards
and other retail surveillance schemes since 1999

http://www.nocards.org

We encourage you to duplicate and distribute this message to others.

==========================================================

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the CASPIAN mailing list, click the
following link or cut and paste it into your browser:

http://www.nocards.org/cgi/mojo/mojo.cgi

I’ve got a couple of articles up over at The Liberty Dogs.

Send a fax to President Bush via the ACLU
The ACLU has a page that allows you to send the President your thoughts about Total Information Awareness

Federal Computer Database to Spy on All Americans
An article on the Poindexterbase from the Liberator Online’s GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS, UNBELIEVABLE NEWS section.

I read a recent editorial by Kathleen Parker about the new “Total Information Awareness” initiative.  As she so eloquently put it, “Not no, but hell no!”  I decided that it was about time that we had an image that expressed our displeasure with this steaming pile of crap. 

Here they are.  Feel free to download these images and distribute them. 

Large (400×400, 27853 bytes):

Small (150×150, 6475 bytes):

Update:  Here’s the link to their website: http://www.darpa.mil/iao/.  At the bottom of the page they give iao_info@darpa.mil as the address for sending questions or comments.  Perhaps they need a good dose of email from the people who pay their salaries.

It appears that DARPA is going forward with a prototype of a system that can monitor every purchase made in the United States.  The people behind this are exactly the kind of vermin that I expected to crawl out from under the woodwork when 9/11/01 hit.

I have a huge problem with this kind of all-encompassing database.  It allows the government to go snooping around in our private lives without any resonable suspicion that we’ve done anything wrong.  This goes against everything that our system represents.  Because of the abuses they suffered at the hands of the British, our founders established a system that requires the “authorities” to get a warrant if they want to dig through my life (although the courts have carved out some exceptions based on exigent circumstances).  The warrant must be based on some resonable evidence that I may actually be involved in some kind of crime.  I contend that this is in effect a search of our private financial records without a warrant (especially if the system is mining the data looking for patterns).  Further, I don’t give a damn how many so-called safeguards and reassurances that they make, the government is not trustworthy enough to have this level of access to our private information.

Further down in the article some lawyer (I’m not sure how he’s involved in this, but I find his trust in government disturbing) had this to say:

I find it somewhat counter intuitive that people are not concerned that telemarketers and insurance companies can acquire this data but feel tremendous trepidation if a government ventures into this arena. To me it just smacks of paranoia,” said David Rivkin, an attorney for Baker & Hostetler LLP.

I hate to break it to you, Mr. Rivkin, but not all of us are sheep.  I was already deeply concerned and upset that telemarketers and insurance companies and a whole host of other malefactors had access to this data.  The government concerns me even more because they could use innocent transactions to brand me a terrorist¹.  Once that happens, it’ll be damn near impossible to undo the damage.  If you think you can trust the government, just remember all the illegal wiretaps and surveillance done by the FBI during the J. Edgar Hoover years.  I can hear the objections, though: But we can trust the government now, it’s all under control.  I don’t trust them and I don’t trust any so-called “safeguards.”  But even if you could trust them, what about the next administration or the one after that?  The American people were promised in the 1930’s that the Social Security number would never be used for anything but Social Security.  Now you’re required to give up your SSN for damn near everything.  Government, like kudzu, expands into any available space and is darn near impossible to remove once it gets there.

And don’t give me that old crap about if you don’t have anything to hide, why would this bother you?  If you know or care so little about freedom that you can’t comprehend my objection to this, then you don’t belong to be a citizen of this country.  Harsh?  Damn skippy!  I’m sick and tired of this crap.  I’ve had enough. 

¹  Think I’m kidding?  I collect firearms.  Last week I withdrew $2000 before I went to the gun show over the weekend.  I purchased two guns there.  Consider this:

Aldridge said the database, which he called another “tool” in the war on terror, would look for telltale signs of suspicious consumer behavior.

Examples he cited were: sudden and large cash withdrawals, one-way air or rail travel, rental car transactions and purchases of firearms, chemicals or agents that could be used to produce biological or chemical weapons.

I guess that makes me a suspicious character under their scheme.  I object to them even knowing about this because it’s none of their damn business what I do with my money or what guns I buy unless they can cite some actual evidence that I’m involved in some kind of wrongdoing.  I don’t want government agents to show up at my door everytime I make a purchase at a gun show (or anywhere else for that matter).  Of course, some statist will probably scurry out to say, “But we all have to sacrifice some of our freedoms so we can be safe.”  Once again, this is utter crap.  Any society that values safety over freedom will have neither (that’s not just some catchy slogan, it’s cold hard truth, which has been demonstrated time and time again).  It is impossible to guarantee total safety.  I’d rather live free and cope with danger than be shackled in safety.

I was checking my referral logs and I found out that someone posted my earlier rant about personal information gathering to a Yahoo message board.

Someone calling himself silence245 had this to say:

and one more thing…

this is probably the woman I tried to help on Saturday.

From the second she walked in the door… I knew it wasn’t going to be a pleasant experience. She was incredibly rude to me…
I approached her to see if she needed assistance and she snapped at me saying that she could find it herself.
Then, in an all-to-often ironic twist, she soon after approached me seeking help after she couldn’t “find it herself”

Not.  I realize you may have just been venting, but when you assume you make an ASS of U and ME.

The first thing to know is that while the given name Aubrey has been used for females, it is primarily a male name.  Of course, I’m used to this by now.  The only thing that really sets me off is when someone calls me Audrey, which is a female name and shows that they don’t have enough respect for me to learn my correct name. 

The next thing is that I am very rarely rude to sales staff, even if they are being a smartass or exhibiting a bad attitude.  I learned years ago that being polite can often get you what you want more easily than being rude or flying off the handle (although I admit having done it a few times in the past).  If I’m upset by something outside the store I don’t take it out on the staff.  In the case of Office Max and the ZIP code incident, I didn’t say or do anything rude to the cashier.  I simply stated that I would not participate in the survey.  That was all there was to it.

In those rare (these days) cases where the sales staff is so incompetent or rude that it upsets me, I generally tell them that I’ve changed my mind about the sale and leave.  I generally try to avoid confrontations.  If they can’t treat me with courtesy and respect, I simply go somewhere else.  If the problem is not as serious, I have found that a polite word said with a bit of quiet anger will usually take care of things. 

And finally, when the sales staff asks me if I need help, I generally say “No, thanks” or “I’m just looking.”  There’s no need to be rude (even after the fifth salesperson does this ).  If I’d come into your store, you’d probably never know I’d been there (unless you remembered my refusal to participate in your store’s information gathering efforts).

Update: This whole retail thing isn’t one of my primary concerns.  My interests lie more in freedom and libertarianism.  It’s also interesting to note the amount of juvenile name-calling and snarky attitude that you get when you decide to break from the herd.  The link to the article was posted to another Yahoo board where someone posted a scarastic (I hope—maybe he/she was really that ignorant; I shudder at the thought) reply that implied that I was some kind of paranoid redneck.  Oh well, I guess some people just don’t get it (and probably never will).  I think I’m done with this topic for a while, though.  There are more important battles right now, especially this stupidity over so-called ballistic “fingerprinting”.

I had previously mentioned an OfficeMax survey that was the last straw with regards to my participation in surveys and information gathering at checkout.

I was in the OfficeMax in Denton yesterday and I noticed that the cash register still prompts the clerk for the survey questions (intended use of the merchandise and zip code), but the clerk zipped by them and just put filler.  She never asked me for any of it.  I didn’t ask about it, but I suspect that this is a case of practicality taking over in place of the grand schemes of marketing.  The clerks just want to get through the work day and if the survey questions cause them a lot of grief, they’ll stop asking them (and fill in junk or nothing if the computer makes them fill in something).  After trying the survey for a while, I suspect they found that people were being put off by it and gave up.  Maybe the market sorted this one out for the better this time.

Or it could be that they recognized me as the curmudgeon who wouldn’t answer their questions last time and decided it wasn’t worth the trouble .

This is the kind of thing that really sets me off.  As I mentioned earlier, I’m not very fond of being profiled and tracked by retailers.

Safeway is testing these carts in Moraga and Cameron Park, California:

Shopping carts in those stores have been equipped with a touch screen and scanner, where shoppers are invited to swipe their Safeway Club Cards—“loyalty” cards that keep track of everything their holders buy in exchange for discounts on merchandise.

As customers stroll the aisles of the store, the screen flashes promotions based on their purchasing histories. For instance, if a shopper is passing the detergent shelves and hasn’t stocked up in while, the cart could flash a coupon for his or her preferred brand.

On the surface, Safeway says it is interested in the technology as a tool for boosting convenience for customers, according to Safeway spokesman David Bowlby. “As with Club Cards, it’s an added convenience for customers,” said Bowlby. “We’re constantly enhancing the customer shopping experience and making it more convenient for them.”

Right.  Requiring a card to get a higher price is really convenient.

But the data gathered by stores such as Safeway represents a treasure trove of consumer buying habits, which may ultimately allow retailers to boost profits by better tailoring their inventories to customers’ desires. The data can also help retailers squeeze more efficiency out of their supply chain by ensuring that they are stocking up on inventory that consumers want to buy.

Inventory my arse, they want that “treasure trove of … habits” so they can build a portfolio on you and market crap to you based on it.

Katherine Albrecht, founder of CASPIAN (whom I came to know because of Albertson’s breaking their no card promise here in North Texas):

I think the average shopper would be creeped out by being tracked around the store. It’s a disturbing thought—being treated like a lab rat.

Instead of creeped out, try infuriated.

Marketing tools like “smart” shopping carts could backfire, however, if people aren’t given the choice not to use them, said Boone. Customers could get annoyed, for instance, if the cart beeped at them until they swiped their card.

If these things are linked to “loyalty” cards, then I probably won’t encounter them, since I won’t shop in a store that uses them.  However if I ever encounter one of these that can’t be disabled I’m going to perform a field study on the distruptive effects of magnetic fields on electronic devices (i.e. clamp a big honkin’ magnet on this sucker).

In response to my last post concerning my customer credo, someone calling himself “mark” left the following missive in my comments section.  As per my policy of not taking any crap, I think it calls for a detailed response.

Hm, ever think that the reason some companies ask for this very simple thing is to help you??  I know that in this “me first and only” world, people like to find fault with everything anyone does, but companies ask for zip codes for a special reason.

I’m perfectly aware of this.  However, it appears that you didn’t really read my post, other than to take offense after the first paragraph.  The zip code really isn’t my problem, it was just the final straw.  You may think of this as a “me first and only” thing, but I happen to value my personal privacy.  I’m not suggesting that “there ought to be a law.”  I’m just not going to participate anymore.  This is a perfectly valid free-market activity.  If the market agrees with me, then the customer profiling and surveys will go away.  If it doesn’t, then they will continue.

One is to find if there may be a valid reason to locate in the zip that you provide.  second, much advertising can be zip code specific, so by knowing the customer base zip code, advertizing (sic) can be sent there.

Many retailers are now asking for phone numbers, names, and addresses.  Given my background in the IT industry I am perhaps more sensitive to these issues because I know just how easy it is for companies to build a detailed dossier about you using information gleaned from a number of sources (although a zip code can’t be used to identify you personally).  Maybe I can’t stop them from doing this, but I can also choose not to participate or to make it easier for them.  If they want my personal data, then they’d damn sure better make the value returned worth it.  That may sound mercenary and “me first” to you, but it is simple economics.  There’s nothing wrong with demanding value in return for something of value that you’ve given, and your personal data is definitely valuable to them.

If you think that your privacy is worth the alleged benefits of giving up this information, then by all means, give ‘em everything they want.  But just because you may value it this way doesn’t mean that I do.  By the way, did you stop to consider that maybe I don’t want to be targeted by advertising?

Personally, can’t see what you are whining about…  too many whiners in the world today..  if it bothers you so much that you have to whine about it on the internet, you must not have much of a life to start with.

This is my website.  I paid for it and I can say or do anything I like on it.  However, I find it interesting that this bothers you so much that you have to whine about it on my website (using my electrons, dammit ).  What does that say about you?  If you’re concerned about whiners, maybe you should start by looking closer to home.

Update:I just got a comment about this post, complaining about the profanity.  It was something that I thought about a bit before posting, and though I’d originally decided to keep it, I’ve rethought that position.  It’s not really in keeping with my normal personality.  I’m not the kind of person who yells profanity at others, no matter what the level of provocation.  It’s not good to start now, even here, because that opens the gates for further breaches of propriety. 

One of the things that I tried to take to heart from my CHL training was to avoid being the antagonist and trying to remain calm in the face of provocation.  I will abide by that.  The inflammatory remarks have been removed.  Not so much because the commenter was put off by them, but because they aren’t really me.

This weekend I went into the OfficeMax here in Denton to purchase some blank CD-Rs and some jewel cases.  Normally I wouldn’t buy those items there, but it was Saturday afternoon and I decided to skip the joy that is Wal-Mart at that time of day on the weekend.  The sales clerk asked me if the purchase was for business or personal use and for my ZIP code.  Maybe I was tired, having just come back from fighting the crowds in Lewisville.  Whatever it was, these questions pushed me past my limit.  I asked her why she needed this info and she said it was for a survey.  I told her that I wasn’t going to participate.

Update 10/17/02:I’ve had two snarky, smart-ass comments about this now from people who for some reason are offended that I wouldn’t give up my ZIP code.  I want to make it clear that the ZIP code is not the real issue here.  It just happened to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.  My real problem is with surveys and demands for my personally identifying information by retailers.  Further comments about ZIP codes will be ignored.

With that I’ve decided that I’ve finally had enough.  I will no longer be treated as a consumer, as a number, as some member of a demographic.  I’ve had enough of pushy marketing.  Bitching about the problem does nothing other than generate hot air so I’ve decided to take action.

Here is my new customer credo.

• I am not a consumer.  I am not some automata that will respond to certain input by emitting payment and consuming products.  I am not a yawning maw of rapacious need to be filled by consumption of products.  I am a customer with unique requirements and desires and I demand to be treated as such.  I am resistant to standard marketing techniques and I recognize when they’re being applied to me.  These techniques will guarantee that I do not return to your place of business ever again.
• I will no longer be surveyed and I will not give out my personally identifying information unless there is a valid reason to do so, like obtaining some kind of service or having something delivered.  I will not assist you in gathering information about me that will be used to generate more marketing.  I’m fed up with spam, with junk mail, and with obnoxious telemarketers.  If I’m at your store purchasing something be glad that I’ve chosen to spend my money there.  If you make the check-out process too difficult by demanding that I answer survey questions or give you personal information to build a profile on me, I may go somewhere else next time.  If you can’t complete the check-out process without this information, I will cancel the sale and go elsewhere.
• I will not do business with any store that demands or uses a loyalty card, preferred member card, or other customer tracking scheme.  These things don’t actually save me money, but they give you valuable information about my buying habits.  I refuse to pay more and get less in return.
• My home telephone belongs to me and is used for my personal business.  I do not want nor will I accept any form of telemarketing or solicitation (no matter how worthy the cause).  I will not do business with any company that calls me on the phone and I will not donate to any charity that does so, regardless of our past relationship.  Because of the abuses by telemarketers, I will no longer give out my phone number to anyone I don’t know personally.  If you call me with a computerized recording or call me with an automated outcalling system that asks me to “please wait”, I will ridicule your company and product and recommend that all of my friends avoid you (go to hell, Dish Network—I’m glad you didn’t get the chance to screw up DirecTV).
• My email address is for use as I see fit.  I will not do business with anyone who sends me unsolicited email.  Ever!  Opt-out is not a viable option.  Remember that from your end there is only one of you and it is easy for you to remove me from your records.  From my end there are thousands of you, making a logistical nightmare for me to get myself off of all those lists.  Further, unscrupulous emailers have made it impossible for me to trust that you will actually remove me from your list.  Many times responding to spam simply guarantees that I will get more.  I will not give you my email address unless it is required for an online business transaction.  If I do give you my email address, that does not give you permission to send me advertisements or other “specials.”  Further, opting into a certain kind of mailing does not give you permission to sell this list for other purposes.
• Sending me a fake bill for a magazine in the hopes that I will pay it and subscribe to the magazine is fraud.  I will not buy your magazine and I will not forget that you did this.  Your magazine (and anything else published by your company) is now dead to me.
• I don’t want your “super special” 90 day free introductory offer.  I know you’re hoping I’ll forget about it in 90 days so you can charge my credit card.  I’m not stupid and being subjected to this kind of offer insults my intelligence.  If your product was that great and I actually needed it I’d buy it regardless of the introductory offer.
• I am not going to buy any more extended warranties or maintenance agreements after being lied to by salespeople about what is covered (Sears) (I know, caveat emptor, they got me on this one).  But I may lie to you and say that I am so that you won’t lie to me that you’re out of stock on what I came to purchase (Best Buy) (unless there’s another supplier nearby).
• I will no longer put up with surly sales clerks and smart-ass PFY’s (Circuit City).  If you can’t motivate your sales staff to have a minimum of respect for the customer then I can’t be bothered to shop there.

To sum it all up: If a business treats me with respect and as if I have some intelligence, I will come back.  If a business treats me as a consumer or as a market demographic, I won’t be back.