The Authentication and Online Trust Association is hosting their annual forum in Seattle today. Many of the sessions at the conference are addressing the issues of building trust with consumers, while at the same time providing good online services. Basically, the fine balance between the fact that we all like that Amazon can give us the best recommendations and tell us that our favorite author has a new book out, but none of us wants to know our personal posts to friends on MySpace are being tricked by advertisers and even sold to third parties.
All of this chatter comes a week after a real breach of trust was committed by one of the respectable watchdogs, the DMA’s EEC. What happened was that the Zinio Publishing, the employer of Jeanniey Mullen, a founder/co-chair of the EEC, sent unsolicited messages to the EEC’s list. The messages e-mails were an acquisition effort for women’s lifestyle publication VIV Magazine. This is a clear violation of the EEC’s privacy policy.
The EEC claims no breach, but the DMA has announced that it will be taking a more controlled approach to managing its once fairly independent organization.
http://directmag.com/magill/0527-dma-changes-eec/
-Dianna Dilworth
