[PLUG-TALK] Online greeting cards - DON'T!

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Mon May 8 19:47:50 UTC 2006


Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> 
> Just a reminder for some of our newer friends:
> 
> If you are ever tempted to use one of those online greeting card
> sites, DON'T.  

On Mon, May 08, 2006 at 09:30:40AM -0700, Michael Rasmussen wrote:
> Are you including hallmark.com in that group?

Here is their privacy policy:

 Hallmark and its family of companies value you and respect your privacy.
 It has always been Hallmark's firm policy to conduct business with
 scrupulous respect for the law.  We collect information to support our
 relationship with you, improve our product offering and to communicate
 about products, services, and promotions.  Hallmark recognizes that
 we must maintain and use information responsibly.  We may disclose
 information to companies that work with us and assist us with providing
 services to you. In addition, Hallmark Gold Crown retailers receive
 information to communicate with you and improve your shopping
 experience.  Occasionally, Hallmark.com uses personal consumer
 information to market the products and services of Hallmark Cards,
 Inc., its subsidiaries; and on a limited basis, we may share your
 contact information with trusted business partners so that they
 may market their products and services to you.

Looks swell - until you think about what they are actually promising.
There is nothing in that policy limiting their redistribution of email
lists, beyond their own concept of "trusted".  That said, I imagine
Hallmark is the "least bad" of the online greeting card folk, but for
many reasons that could change quickly.

This points out an opportunity for "open source e-cards" alternatives
that don't rely on the integrity and security of a commercial website,
and don't channel the enormous creative potential of all the would-be
card artists through a few commercial entities.  Another opportunity for
creative software designers, especially those that like to work with
artists and other non-technologists.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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