Sign away your privacy with NZ Post!
New
Zealand Post are attempting an outrageous invasion
of privacy under the
guise of a competition. This week, letters addressed to every
household in the country went out offering "An opportunity to win!" a
total of $50,000 in
prizes. All you have to do to enter is surrender your privacy.The document, far more detailed than any census form, contains six-and-a-half pages of questions. In addition to your name, address and full contact details they want to know ...
- About your interests
- What sports you play
- What vehicles you own
- Whether you rent or own your own home
- How long you've been there
- How much it's worth
- Your mortgage rate and when you took it out
- How big the house is
- How many people live there
- Whether you intend to move, build, buy or renovate in the next 12 months
- Whether you intend to marry in the next 12 months
... and that only takes you to the bottom of the second page! Subsequent sections enquire about your finances, your shopping habits, your travel habits, and then a little "general information" such as:
- You and your partner's dates of birth
- Your ethnicity
- Marital status
- Ages and sexes of your children
- Your occupation
- The postcode of your place of work(!)
- Your annual income
- Your sources of income
- Even what charities you support
In the quarter-page of Guidance Notes they do acknowledge that participation is voluntary and that you can skip particular questions, but how many people -- fooled by the document's semi-official look -- will fill out the whole thing?
This piece of fine print is particularly revealing:
"By undertaking
the New Zealand Post survey, you and your partner's name, address and
other information you supply ... may be provided to companies and other
organisations from New Zealand and overseas to enable them to provide
you and/or your partner, with information about products and services
relevant to your responses to this survey."
In short, they're going to spam you!If you're even considering filling out this piece of trash, remember;
- This is a commercial transaction. I'm guessing that NZ Post won't be giving away your information. They'll sell it, and/or sell services that utilise it. Offering $50,000 worth of prizes to obtain it is chickenfeed.
- While I acknowledge you'll be able to "check, correct and remove your survey responses", what happens to the information they have already "provided to companies and other organisations from New Zealand and overseas"? Will that be checkable, correctable and removable? I doubt it.
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Comments
The first time I have heard of someone publically admitting they might be selling my email address. And they are supposed to be a reputable company!!!
Posted by: John Smith | July 14, 2009 4:35 PM
I believe a few weeks ago one of the Pamphlet distributing companies went into liquidation. There were only two companies distributing. PMP & Reachmedia. Reachmedia is in liquidation so NZ Post just wants to quickly pick up their business. If NZ Post doesn't do this then it leaves PMP to have a monoply and as usual charge like hell. PMP is owned by Fairfax. Fairfax is big enough as it is.
Maybe the way NZ Post are going about this is wrong but some competition is better than none at all. Give them some info if not all.
Posted by: Hazza | July 14, 2009 1:44 PM
Returned to nz post blank with large dose of antrax for the executive who thought this up. Having recently returned from UK I am astounded at the volume rubbish that arrives every day (and it doesn't even burn well).And they want to send me more???
Posted by: darryll steele | July 13, 2009 11:54 PM
I came to the same conclusion and blogged about this as well. I’ve duly reported this to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs’ Scamwatch web page.
Posted by: Jack Yan | July 13, 2009 12:34 PM
It has little if anything to do with improving their own core business activities. They're reducing themselves to commercial pimps. Have written to both them and the Privacy Commissioner. Heads should roll.
Posted by: Geoff James | July 12, 2009 4:41 PM
Got mine this morning.
Read it and found they wanted me to give them everything about me for firms wanting to use it for making money.
It went into the bin about 2 minutes after I opened the envelope.
Maybe next time I will supply them with imaginative information just to screw them up
Posted by: Bruce | July 11, 2009 4:33 PM
I have to say these kinds of invasions of privacy infuriate me. Perhaps the fact I fill these types of 'surveys' out with totally incorrect and ludicrously inaccurate information may be kind of petty, I feel it is the least I can do to render this type of campaign irrelevant
Posted by: Mat Nicholls | July 10, 2009 10:14 PM
With the loss of earnings due to the internet, it seems they're just trying to sell targetted advertising to companies willing to pay for that specific target drop.
"Hello Mr Soap company, we have 100,000 people who like to stay clean. Would you like us to post advertising for you. Send us the adverts and we'll drop them off".
Posted by: Peter Morris | July 10, 2009 8:12 AM
If the reply is post paid, I would be inclined to write GET LOST in large felt pen across the top page and post it back to them.
Posted by: Jim Wilkinson | July 9, 2009 11:14 PM
Oh so thats what it was - I threw it in the bin without reading it :)
Posted by: chris | July 9, 2009 10:38 PM