Did everyone enjoy their weekend? I mainly caught up on my DVR over the weekend!
A very interesting article was given to me today from April's Issue of Direct Marketing News. It was discussing the recent California Supreme Court ruling "that Williams-Sonoma could not longer collect ZIP codes during credit card transactions." The court sided with the plaintiff who accused Williams-Sonoma of using "customer ZIP codes to find home addresses, market to consumers, and sell that data to other businesses." This case has brought along hundreds of similar cases against other retailers.
I shop at many stores that ask me for my ZIP code but never thought of it as private information. I never gave it a second thought but now this makes me wonder. With the advances in technology, it seems that our personal data is more vulnerable. But is that really the case?
Also, for those companies that do use this information for data gathering purposes will now have to find another way to do so. How will this affect marketing efforts by companies?
What are your thoughts? Do you consider your ZIP code to be personal?
--L
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