[pluies]

Okay, grammatical quibbles aside, this blog post is scary.

Harvesting that much information about your customers is creepy and dangerous. I don't care that it helps your business or that it's technically feasible, it's just wrong.

[btilly]

I am puzzled at why this comment is so popular.

You have a website. With a login form. People gave you information about themselves. They are contacting you from your website which they are logged in to.

Exactly what is creepy and dangerous about having the information that they gave you knowing that it would be stored in your system be presented to you when they use your service to contact you??? Guess what, odds are that they are going to do something like ask about the status of an order that they made, and you're going to pull up the account and have information about that as well! If you can't, then you're incompetent and can't provide good customer support.

Really, I understand privacy as much as, and probably more than, the next guy. (I'm one of the rare people who cares enough about mine to have avoided Facebook.) But really, this is bog normal for what happens when you contact customer support at any competent place. Any place that doesn't have the ability to get at information like this is going to have customer support so bad that you won't want to go back.

[bcx]

I'd like to understand more of your concerns.

Olark just help website owners take the information they already have about you (and that you gave to them), and use it to provide better service.

So if your logged into a website and ask a question the operator doesn't have to ask you for your username again (the website already knows it -- why shouldn't the person helping you)

Most of this parallels what goes on in the real world. If you often shop at the same store the clerks will start to recognize you and give you more personal service -- Olark just lets small business owners do the same online.

[huhtenberg]

Definitely, that's why Olark has been firmly sitting on my AdBlock blacklist from the first time I ran into them.

[bcx]

Do you also block Google Analytics?

[shaggyfrog]

You can block them and many, many more with Ghostery. I've installed it on all of my computers/browsers.

http://www.ghostery.com/

[huhtenberg]

  > Ghostery, a service of Evidon, Inc. All rights reserved.
  > http://www.evidon.com, formerly Better Advertising.

Thanks, I appreciate the irony, but No

[shaggyfrog]

Doesn't bother me. Is this paranoia or something? I mean, who better to know how to block advertising beacons than a former advertiser?

[huhtenberg]

Yes.