Wednesday, October 14, 2009
You are in search of a house. You visit real estate agents, you drive around, you enter the World Wide Web.
The Internet. A good place to gather as much information as you need without having to leave your home. Perfect. Let's get started.
You begin your search using the search engines available. Hundreds and thousands of links appear on your screen giving you information about houses available for sale, for rent, and other connected information. You are pleased.
You dig deeper - looking for the right area, for the right number of rooms, for the best price.
Ah, you finally find a few potentials in these websites.
You begin contacting the agent or the property owner via email or the contact form.
You divulge your personal information such as name, email address and contact number for a viewing.
At the same time, note that the property owner has given his personal information such as name, address of the house for sale/rent, email address and contact number on the website too.
Basically, if you have used the website's contact form, then that website has collected your personal information. It now has both yours and the property owner's personal information.
You wait for an answer.
Some time later, one of the property owners contacts you - surprised that you have his contact information and asking about his house which has been sold - 2 years ago!
Another email you receive is from the postmaster stating that the message you have sent has been delayed - the email address is probably no longer in use.
Now think. What is the website doing with all these personal information stored? Why isn't old information being removed? Contact information and pictures of houses of property owners who have sold their houses ages ago are still advertised on the website and misleads the visitor. And through this misleading information, the website collects your personal information as well. So what is going to happen to your personal information? Are third parties getting hold of your personal information? There is no privacy statement informing you of the handling of your data. You contact the website but you receive no answer.
The property owner is also not happy. He contacts the website for his information to be removed. Days later, he checks the website. His information is still there! Spammers happily clog his mailbox using his email address advertised on the website and he keeps getting phone calls about his sold house.
It is a nightmare.