I Have a Serious Grumble

[jumpuphigh]

Today, Rainbow Ebooks is offering 2 ebooks for free.  However, to get said ebooks, you have to pay by giving them all your personal information including birthdate, full address, and phone number. In my mind, that's not free. Making me join with an email and password I can understand but wtf do they need that other data for?

So, that rhetorical question led me to their privacy policy. They store my IP address as well.  Grrrr

I expect better from a queer company.  And people wonder why users prefer the darknet for getting free ebooks.

Comments

[maryavatar]

I agree they probably don't need all your info for a giveaway, but they may be collecting most of it for research on the demographics of ebook users.

Also - all websites log your IP address, or at least the server does. They may not do anything with the information gathered, but it's collected all the same. I'm a professional web developer, and every single website I've worked on has some kind of IP logger, even if it's just a basic analytics package. People like to know how often they get repeat visitors to their website, their location, what pages they visit and so on.

[jumpuphigh]

They need my phone number and full address for demographics research? I'm not willing to buy that.

If you are collecting identifying information about me, I want to know for what purpose and how long it is being kept. This is doubly true when that is sensitive information that could be used against me in the hands of others. (Not that I care who knows that I read erotica but for a queer young man in rural Mississippi, that's going to be a completely different matter in most cases.) Yes, I know websites collect IP addresses. I'm actually really conscious of that which is why I have software to hide my IP address with just a few clicks. My right to privacy is more important than a website's right to know that I like BDSM, especially when it involves ropes, threesomes and the beach.

[maryavatar]

And as I said, they probably don't need all your info.

However, as it is possible to get the ebooks by giving false information, I fail to see why we need a post warning about it - getting people to register before handing out free product is a tried and tested marketing technique. It is highly unlikely that a company whose aim is to sell these types of books would collect personal information for malicious purposes, and there are laws in place to prevent websites from sharing personal information which has been collected on-line.

I don't want to sound dismissive, but if you don't want people storing information on you, don't give them the information. If this means you can't get free stuff - that's your choice. And as for privacy - if you're buying something from a company the right to privacy means they don't share your information, not that the company shouldn't know who they're selling to. You wouldn't walk into a shop and demand that the sales staff stop looking at you because it violates your right to privacy. There are companies who do sell anonymously, but there is no law that states a company must sell anonymously, only laws that prevent them passing on that information without permission.

[jumpuphigh]

You wouldn't walk into a shop and demand that the sales staff stop looking at you because it violates your right to privacy.

No but I wouldn't expect to have to give the woman handing out the free samples my full name, full address, phone number and full birthdate just to get her sample either. I'd also be pretty annoyed if an associate followed me around and made notes on what I picked up, what I put back, and what I finally put in my cart. If they are handing out free ebooks in an attempt to get customers, requiring me to give up my privacy just to see if I want to be their customer is a bad play.