
Acxiom: the company that knows if you own a cat or if you're right-handed - vaksel
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/5231752/Acxiom-the-company-that-knows-if-you-own-a-cat-or-if-youre-right-handed.html
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bitwize
"FYI man, you can sit at home and do absolutely _nothing_ \-- and your name
goes through like 17 computers a day, man. 1984? Yeah, _right_ , man, that's a
typo. Orwell's here now and he's livin' large. We have no names, man, no
names. We are _nameless_. ...Can I score a fry?"

Seriously, this goes on all the time. I used to work for a company that could
divine your age, sex, race, marital status, and income and education levels
from your cable TV viewing habits.

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enjo
I launched my career at Acxiom... it's a fascinating company that deals in
HUGE database problems.

It's also terrifying to know just how much information they have, and how
aggressive they are in using it.

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BobH
I have created a startup that attempts to break this model of selling your
information without your knowledge. It’s called MyInfoTrader
[www.MyInfoTrader.com]. The service is fully voluntary and pays back the users
when a user’s address is sold for a mailing list.

Please check it out; I am very interested in your comments.

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anigbrowl
I like the idea, but not the faux-wood visual interface, which reminded me of
a Flash game at first blush. I think the weak part is you're offering coupons,
rebates and special offers. These are already used and abused by many
websites, and my first reaction was 'meh...more spam' - which is unfair,
because such things do offer a value to the consumer...but it's just that I
seem to get special offers when people have something they want to promote,
rather than when I want to buy.

Suggestion: give users points, then let them claim the rewards they actually
want. This would be a source of more saleable data in itself. Alternatively,
give out cash. Since the amount owed to any individual user is miniscule, you
could adopt a lottery model and give 1 user out of 1000 a $100 every month, or
whatever your numbers allow.

It's a good concept, I just think you need something to set yourself apart
from other information marketing companies and give you an unusual angle.

~~~
Radix
I want to second this suggestion. With some good advertising and some bad math
you could probably convince some users that they're practically guaranteed(!)
to earn money from one of the lottery's run whenever there data is sold. Tie
that to some instand credit card (paypal account?) and you could also track
what they choose to buy with their winnings.

Does anyone remember the name of that new credit card company that is sopposed
to be competing with paypal and Google Checkout?

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smountcastle
If you're interested in all of the different classifications that Acxiom came
up with, I documented them last year in a blog post:

<http://seanmountcastle.com/2008/01/01/whats-your-segment/>

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thalur
" "You're using Facebook to say all kind of things that you wouldn't say in
public," he says. "My grandmother thought that the phone was an intrusion into
her life. Why would this person call rather than knock on the door? Now we
just accept it." "

That doesn't necessarily make it a good thing though... At least with facebook
or a phone you get to choose some of the data that is held on you.

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delano
I can't speak for all of their data but they quality of their address and
geocode data for Canada was not very good (as of 2005). The formatting was
fine but it was outdated by as much as a few years.

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billybob
It's crap like this that makes me want to go Amish.

