[LiveTheDream]

Why should a potential customer be willing to trust you with their email address? Perhaps you are very respectful of their privacy, but already their trust has been violated plenty of times by other, less honest companies. "One bitten, twice shy" and all that.

[garrettdimon]

I'm not claiming that they should trust us. I'm only saying that it works both ways, and that we as business owners have a choice about whether to trust potential customers just as much as they have a choice about whether or not to trust us.

It might be anachronistic, but if a potential customer wants to begin a relationship with us with a lie, then of the two of us, I would think we have more reason to mistrust that individual than they have to mistrust us. Their mistrust is based on projecting bad behavior of other companies onto us whereas our mistrust is based on them actively beginning the relationship with a lie.

Of course, this decision may cost us some potential customers, but for now, that's something that we're willing to accept.