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An Infomediary Enters the Privacy Debate
Introduction
As opposed to mass marketing to a faceless audience, direct marketing sends a message to an individual or group of individuals. The power of direct marketing is that the advertiser attempts to send her message to only those people who want or need her company’s product or service. In order to accomplish this objective, however, the advertiser must have knowledge of her audience, both those included and excluded in the message.
Consequently, over the last thirty years, direct marketers have been gathering extensive information about individuals which was used to reduce unwanted mail. This admirable goal was accomplished, however, without the individual’s involvement or consent as third party entities collected, managed, rented, traded, and exploited the value of their data with nary a word mentioned to the individual. In fact, in 1995, a direct marketing trade magazine featured an article titled, Dumbing Down What We Know: How to Use Data without Scaring Your Customers.
Lumeria plans to obliterate this antiquated business model and create an environment in which individuals and marketers can collaborate together to satisfy each other’s goals while respecting an individual’s right to privacy. Please see the Conclusion for more information about the benefits of the SuperProfile system to users, marketers, and merchants.
