Marketing Essentials

Chapter 8: Communication Skills

A Matter of Ethics Online Action

Free E-mail?
In 2004, a well-known tech company announced a free, Web-based e-mail service with plenty of storage to send photos and other big attachments, and built-in virus protection, so users would not need to worry about getting a virus in an e-mail. It made privacy watchdogs concerned. The company planned to electronically scan every message for content and to attach related product advertising to the message. So, for instance, if you and a friend were e-mailing each other about video games, you might get ads from video game companies. The company also planned to archive every message.

Activity
Answer the following questions: How do you feel about this service? Are you bothered by the thought of a company scanning the content of your e-mail in order to determine which advertisements to show to you? Is the archival of old e-mails a concern for you?