Matt Marshall, a business reporter for the Mercury News, exposes Jigsaw, yet another business founded on the concept of selling personal information to any and all bidders in Jigsaw: Give us your business cards, earn extra cash. Though the recipients of this startup’s largess isn’t you or me, not the individual whose information is being put into the database, rather getting paid are the people to whom you (or someone) at one point gave your information.
That’s right–you traded business cards during a meeting or social event and now that person is being enticed to enter your information into Jigsaw’s system. The pitch given in Marshall’s post is this is the next evolution of social networking, taking the more abstract implementations such as LinkedIn or Friendster to a more useful, business value proposition because the database contains (presumably) valid corporate contact information.
While Marshall does include a trivial attempt at balance by using the last paragraph to ask one user “What about privacy concerns?,” overall I think he’s published a terrible piece of reporting (this will also appear in his Tuesday column in the Mercury News). Seriously, just because I gave someone my business card does that mean I want it published in yet another corporate database to which anyone can buy access? More importantly, he doesn’t ask why the company is justified in paying someone else for my data and not me. Uggh barely expresses my disdain for the article and the company.
Later: Marshall updated the post to include a Q&A with Jigsaw CEO Jim Fowler, in which Fowler completely absolved the company of any real privacy issues, including spam; the newly-added portion does not address my question about who ought to be paid for the information. Here’s the most relevant extract:
Q: How does a business or person opt out information being given to Jigsaw and then redistributed like spam?
Fowler: Jigsaw is not a list that members purchase and use for SPAM. Members do get contacts on Jigsaw but use them for one-to-one, BtoB sales purpose. Spamming is strictly prohibited. Asking how to opt out of Jigsaw is like asking to opt out of Hoover’s or InfoUSA (can’t be done).
In other words, this company is hardly better than so many other bottomfeeders that have decided to use the Internet for their advantage, and screw you to anyone who doesn’t like it.
BillSaysThis 