IP: Ransom: Customer Data

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff@iconia.com>
>To: "Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber" <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
>Subject: Ransom: Customer Data
>Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 20:47:37 -0700
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>Importance: Normal
>
>Ransom: Customer Data
>By Connie Guglielmo, >By Connie Guglielmo, Inter@ctive Week
>October 9, 2000 12:14 AM ET
>
>Jules Neuringer never intended to become a martyr. But that was before
>Motorola tried to co-opt his customers. Now, the man who spent 30 years
>minding his own business selling two-way radios in Brooklyn, N.Y., finds
>himself the unofficial spokesman for a small but growing band of independent
>dealers in a catch-22 nightmare they say was crafted by one of the
>communications industry's biggest players.
>
>The catch: Independent dealers are being told they must turn over their
>proprietary customer data - the lifeblood of their business - or lose the
>right to sell Motorola's popular two-way radios. But if they give up that
>valuable information about the customers they have spent years cultivating,
>there's nothing to prevent the Schaumburg, Ill., manufacturer from using the
>Internet to cut the dealers out of the loop.
>
>"What better way to enter the e-commerce market than by pirating your
>dealers' customer lists?" Neuringer asked.
>
>Add that to the fact that the data is being merged with other personal
>databases over the objections - and even threatened lawsuits - from
>customers, and the story highlights how technology and the race to succeed
>in the new high-stakes game of e-commerce are increasingly stripping
>consumers of anonymity in a country that already offers few privacy rights.
>
>It's enough to turn Neuringer, president of Portronix Communications, into a
>privacy zealot. Make that a martyred privacy zealot, since his failure to
>comply with Motorola's so-called Impact21 dealer marketing program will cost
>him - effective Oct. 17 - his 11-year tenure as an authorized Radius
>reseller of the company's two-way radios.
>
><<snip>>
>
>http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2637528,00.html
>
>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>Geoff_Goodfellow@iconia.com, Prague CZ * tel/mobil +420 (0)603 706 558
>"Success is getting what you want & happiness is wanting what you get"
>http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/17drop.html