Don’t Touch the Monkey!
Written: Jan 21 '02 (Updated Jan 21 '02)
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The idea of groping trees, and punching monkeys for cash may seem a bit odd, but when some people said it works, I tried it; didn’t win anything, except almost carpel tunnel syndrome.
One day, I get email spam from a company called Virtumundo. When I tried unsubscribing, I noticed Virtumundo’s logos and artwork resembled the Treeloot monkey; it was. Virtumundo is a direct marketing company, and Treeloot is one of their trademarks. They caught me playing with their monkey.
When you touch the monkey, Virtumundo makes it their business to let everyone know about it. Their privacy policy at http://privacy.virtumundo.com/pripol.html spells out what the company does, and how your information is “protected”. Here are some excerpts.
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1.2 Third Party List Information. The Company collects information from individuals when an individual provides information to a third party, and the Company subsequently purchases, licenses, or otherwise acquires the information from the third party (the "Seller"). Such purchased information may include, but is not limited to, an individual's name, email address, street address, zip code, telephone numbers (including cell phone numbers and carriers), birth date, gender, salary range, education and marital status, occupation, industry of employment, personal and online interests, and such other information as the individual may …
(…they collect information, the more you divulge, the more happy they become.)
2.1 The Company may use Individual Information to provide promotional offers to individuals by means of email advertising, telephone marketing, direct mail marketing, online banner advertising, and package stuffers, among other possible uses.
(…telemarketing, credit card offers, loans, casinos, mortgages… bankruptcy is the fastest growing problem in America.)
2.4 Direct Mail and Telemarketing. The Company uses Individual Information to advertise, directly or indirectly, to individuals using direct mail marketing or telemarketing using telephones and cell phones.
(…got a cell phone? Use up your minutes receiving offers.)
3.1 Sale or Transfer to Third Parties. THE COMPANY MAY SELL OR TRANSFER INDIVIDUAL INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES FOR ANY PURPOSE IN COMPANY'S SOLE DISCRETION.
(…your information is valuable, to someone.)
2.2 Email. The Company uses Individual Information to provide promotional offers by email to individuals. The Company may maintain separate email lists for different purposes. If email recipients wish to end their email subscription from a particular list, they need to follow the instructions at the end of each email message to unsubscribe from the particular list. To unsubscribe from all Company email lists, a person must visit and follow the instructions provided at http://privacy.virtumundo.com/optout/global.
(…you may unsubscribe from Virtumundo, but your info has already been sold to someone else. The email circle only continues.)
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And what they say in their privacy agreement, changes frequently, almost every week. Funny? That’s the nature of the direct email business.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
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Trusted by: 166 members
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