ProZ.com advertising partners-how much private, personal info can they see? Thread poster: writeaway
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I received an email this morning with the heading: 'ProZ.com advertising partner Translation Workspace - Special Offer for the ProZ Community!'
So far, so good. However it was addressed me, using my real first name even though I use a pseudonym on Proz and have always done so.
How much of our private, personal information is being revealed to these 'advertising partners'? How did they get access to my real first name?
I consider this an invasion of privacy. Was it a gl... See more I received an email this morning with the heading: 'ProZ.com advertising partner Translation Workspace - Special Offer for the ProZ Community!'
So far, so good. However it was addressed me, using my real first name even though I use a pseudonym on Proz and have always done so.
How much of our private, personal information is being revealed to these 'advertising partners'? How did they get access to my real first name?
I consider this an invasion of privacy. Was it a glitch or is it Proz policy? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Most likely a 3rd party email sent by ProZ | Sep 15, 2010 |
Businesses often make use of partners' databases for a fee. In this case, company X most likely paid ProZ a fee for ProZ to send the email to their database. I.e. no data was provided to them.
All company X, or ProZ on their behalf, would have to do is use a few placeholders/tokens. For example, the following could be used by at massmailing program:
Hello %%First Name%% %%Last Name%%,
Company X would only have to provide ProZ with email copy and would not ... See more Businesses often make use of partners' databases for a fee. In this case, company X most likely paid ProZ a fee for ProZ to send the email to their database. I.e. no data was provided to them.
All company X, or ProZ on their behalf, would have to do is use a few placeholders/tokens. For example, the following could be used by at massmailing program:
Hello %%First Name%% %%Last Name%%,
Company X would only have to provide ProZ with email copy and would not receive any of your personal data unless you decided to click on a link to accept the offer and provide company X with data.
This is only a guess from someone who often sends massmailings - both direct and 3rd party. I suggest you read ProZ's privacy policy to find out what you have allowed them to do with your data.
Edited to include: "and provide company X with data".
[Edited at 2010-09-15 14:29 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | mediamatrix (X)
Local time: 10:34
Spanish to English
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| Site users' personal preferences should propagate to 3rd parties | Sep 15, 2010 |
When I get into a one-to-one dialogue with proz.com staff - for example when staff respond to a support ticket - those staff always address me by my pseudonym, respecting the choice I made deliberately when joining this community. Only if I change the rules of the game by signing my message with my real name - as I often do in a support conversation - do staff or moderators switch to using my real name, too.
If site staff can - and do - respect the rules I have chosen to imp... See more When I get into a one-to-one dialogue with proz.com staff - for example when staff respond to a support ticket - those staff always address me by my pseudonym, respecting the choice I made deliberately when joining this community. Only if I change the rules of the game by signing my message with my real name - as I often do in a support conversation - do staff or moderators switch to using my real name, too.
If site staff can - and do - respect the rules I have chosen to impose on the use of my real name, then I would expect the site to impose those same rules when allowing third parties to send mass mailings; and that, regardless of whether or not the third party receives a Bcc of those emails or some other kind of notification of the despatch. I haven't received any email from TW, but if I did (or do...) I would expect to be addressed by my pseudonym only.
Just because TW is a client of proz.com doesn't imply that TW has privileges that go beyond those of proz.com itself. On the contrary, proz.com has a commitment to me to respect my choice, and should make sure that my choice propagates through to any third-parties with which the site choses to do business.
Madeleine MacRae Klintebo wrote (with my emphasis):
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Company X would only have to provide ProZ with email copy and would not receive any of your personal data unless you decided to click on a link to accept the offer and provide company X with data.
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In scenarios of the kind suggested by Madeleine, it is common practice (if not actually a contractual obligation) for the servce provider (proz.com in this case) to provide the third party with proof of despatch of their emails. Regardless of how we, the site users, are addressed in those emails, I would be interested to know what feedback (i.e. what data) is given by proz.com to their third party client as proof of fulfillment of their part of the bargain.
MediaMatrix ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Offers from the virtual conference? | Sep 15, 2010 |
Writeaway, did you by chance take part in the virtual conference last year? Or sign up this year? I know I did and actually regret it - I've been inundated with what I consider to be spam since then. I remember having to fill in my real name and consent to my data being passed on. Virtual conference privacy policy here:
http://www.proz.com/translation3/privacy
That's the only ... See more Writeaway, did you by chance take part in the virtual conference last year? Or sign up this year? I know I did and actually regret it - I've been inundated with what I consider to be spam since then. I remember having to fill in my real name and consent to my data being passed on. Virtual conference privacy policy here:
http://www.proz.com/translation3/privacy
That's the only thing I could really think of. At any rate, I think it's terrible. ▲ Collapse
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| Thank you, writeaway | Sep 15, 2010 |
Thanks for reporting this, writeaway.
The site name you choose (either your username or your real name, depending on your profile settings) should be respected, both on the site and in emails you receive. In this case site staff made the mistake, and the site name was not respected in the email sent.
I should clarify that this information is not and was not shared with the advertiser involved. No personally identifiable data is shared with advertisers.
Ste... See more Thanks for reporting this, writeaway.
The site name you choose (either your username or your real name, depending on your profile settings) should be respected, both on the site and in emails you receive. In this case site staff made the mistake, and the site name was not respected in the email sent.
I should clarify that this information is not and was not shared with the advertiser involved. No personally identifiable data is shared with advertisers.
Steps have been taken internally to prevent this type of error from happening again. My sincere apology on behalf of site staff for this departure from the use of site names.
Regards,
Jared ▲ Collapse
| | | | writeaway 
French to English
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TOPIC STARTER | Thank you Jared | Sep 15, 2010 |
I am very relieved that the advertiser did not access my personal data. Site Staff know my real name anyway but it's true, that this sort of site mail is usually sent to us using our site names.
Thanks for clearing it up so quickly.
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mediamatrix wrote: Madeleine MacRae Klintebo wrote (with my emphasis):
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Company X would only have to provide ProZ with email copy and would not receive any of your personal data unless you decided to click on a link to accept the offer and provide company X with data.
...
In scenarios of the kind suggested by Madeleine, it is common practice (if not actually a contractual obligation) for the servce provider (proz.com in this case) to provide the third party with proof of despatch of their emails.
The simple method would be to provide a send report detailing total sent, total received (less hard and soft bounces), number of clicks (unique and total). The partner might still be able to find out conversion rate, i.e. how many prospects purchase the product, as the email might include qpids (identifiers) and ProZ might provide the partner with data from these.
Please note the use of "might" as I have no idea about the business dealings between ProZ and TW.
mediamatrix wrote:
Regardless of how we, the site users, are addressed in those emails, I would be interested to know what feedback (i.e. what data) is given by proz.com to their third party client as proof of fulfillment of their part of the bargain.
Up to ProZ to address that issue.
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Michele Johnson wrote:
Writeaway, did you by chance take part in the virtual conference last year? Or sign up this year? I know I did and actually regret it - I've been inundated with what I consider to be spam since then.
Hi Michele,
What writeaway mentions is not related to the virtual conference. If you are receiving email from the vendors whose booths you visited last year that you would rather not receive, please note you can use the "unsubscribe" link in them to unsubscribe from them.
Regards,
Jared
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| What gets shared | Sep 15, 2010 |
mediamatrix wrote:
In scenarios of the kind suggested by Madeleine, it is common practice (if not actually a contractual obligation) for the servce provider (proz.com in this case) to provide the third party with proof of despatch of their emails. Regardless of how we, the site users, are addressed in those emails, I would be interested to know what feedback (i.e. what data) is given by proz.com to their third party client as proof of fulfillment of their part of the bargain.
MediaMatrix
Hi MediaMatrix,
Advertisers do not have access to any detailed email delivery reports; only site staff do. The data which is made available to advertisers is: number of emails delivered, percentages of email reads, and percentages of "click-throughs" (access of a given page URL from a sent email). No other data is passed on.
Regards,
Jared
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