CDigix's "Privacy" Policy · 2006-03-13
So the university just signed a deal with CDigix, a music and movie subscription service geared towards college students.
I’m not really sure what kind of “deal” this is, since the university is supposedly not paying a dime for the privilege of having CDigix’s service and since the “deal” is not exclusive. Fortunately, the non-exclusiveness leaves the door open for better , more reputable companies.
But hey, at $2/month, CDigix couldn’t be that bad, could it? Besides having to deal with bad quality, digital restriction encumbered Windows Media Audio files that I couldn’t even use on my iPod without having to pay extra, it seemed like it was worth trying out.
So I went to the poorly designed, flash laden website and decided to sign up. Rather than blindly accepting the privacy policy though, I decided to flip through and see what it said.
We may share information with other reputable companies or organizations whose products or services we think you might find interesting.
Hmm… that seemed a bit sketchy. I wonder what kind of information they might be sharing.
We use the e-mail addresses that we collect for various purposes, including to send out information relating to Cdigix and our services.
That doesn’t seem too bad; I might get spammed a bit by the company, but it doesn’t seem that they’re going to sell it to every Rolex/Viagra-peddling Nigerian 419 scammer out there.
We may use the postal addresses that we collect to send periodic mailings from with information on new products and services or upcoming events. From time to time, we may also make our customer postal addresses list available to other reputable companies or organizations whose products or services we think you might find interesting.
From time to time, we may also make our customer telephone number list available to other reputable companies or organizations whose products or services we think you might find interesting.
Wait a minute, they’re selling my address and phone numbers? That’s why the service is only $2/month. They’re not in the business of selling digital media, they’re in the business of selling people’s personal information. Getting a “deal” with the university gives them a captive audience (and probably a big database of all your information) that they can resell to the highest bidders.
Of course, you can opt-out of all of this (except the e-mail address bit) by sending an e-mail to the company. There’s no way to do it on their website, no “opt-in” when you sign up. CDigix is betting that’s too much trouble to go through for the majority of its customers.
I don’t really want a music service that does me the favor of getting me in contact with companies I might find interesting. What I really want is the university to stand up the entertainment cartels. But since that’s never going to happen, I would be happy with the university just letting students choose what is best for themselves.
