Why your competitors want you to use Gmail
Un-encrypted email is bad for business.
After a line like that, you probably thought I was going to talk about email compliance. Actually, there’s another reason to ditch SMTP email if you value your market share: targeted ads. Unsecured email is easily scanned for keywords by the web-mail companies that offer free email accounts. This results in in spam and targeted ads from your direct competitors whenever you send a message from or to one of these web-mail accounts.
Your email essentially “sends” competitors ads to your contacts
For example, suppose you’re a Real Estate agent with your own paid-for email address. You’ve been contacted by someone with a Gmail address that’s interested in a property. Gmail now has both email addresses, yours and theirs, associated with “real estate”, and knows your city. If you reply with similar information, they now have enough data to start constructing what’s called a “email profile.” This means that the mere whisper of your email address on Gmail will now influence the ads a reader sees …likely from other Real Estate agents in your territory!
Below is an animation I whipped up to show the basics of how Gmail users are shown targeted ads.
Free email + ads = $$$
The personal information of millions of internet users has great value. To a hacker, unencrypted customer information is a potential candy jar, but to a web-mail provider, the aggregate data of millions of users is a best-selling product. Besides encryption saving your collective *assets* from compliance privacy laws, the second primary reason to use secure email is to shield customers from targeted advertising.
Despite the general hubbub and scrutiny from the FCC, large web-media companies are paying lip-service to customer fears while continuing to act unconcerned about privacy because of the great profit potential of targeted advertising. A great incentive exists to continue exploiting information because of the increasing sophistication, and profit of these method of marketing. Until enough customers clamor for it (the carrot) or stricter laws are passed (the stick), it will continue to be the model for free and cheap service on the internet.
For a full explanation of how targeted advertising works, read the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s FAQ on the quintessential keyword scanner: Gmail.
Why do consumers put up with all this?..
There are two basic categories of email users: business and consumers; each have a different perspective on email privacy.
As a business you have clear commercial interest in your communications. Given the choice, your business would prefer that corporate knowledge (i.e. email content) remain exclusively in the service of your commercial interests and not be re-purposed by web-media companies for competitive advertisements—directed toward your customers!
On the other hand, consumers tend to have a personal, temporary, non-focused, nonexclusive, noncommercial privacy interest (free stuff). Outside of the nuisance factor when they receive unsolicited ads for things they just “happen” to have recently communicated about, most consumers are are easily won over the freebies and all those great “trust seals” (It reminds me a bit of trading beads for land).
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Tags: business email, email encription, email privacy, email security, gmail, privacy rights, targeted advertising
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January 24, 2008 at 7:46 am
Hi Privacyharbor,
Great post. With Gmail spreading like wild fire sometimes it is easy to overlook some of the underlying issues that affect the public at large. Your post has made it clear that Gmail is a competition gold mine. The idea of Gmail creating an “email profile” just makes all too much sense and probably is making them a fortune. Email encryption might be a staple of email compliance regulations, but
the potential impact that targeted advertising can have on the market should propel it even further into the spotlight. You have definitely got me thinking.