Research Before You Submit Your Personal Information
Posted on Jan 08, 2008 - 11:25pm by Mark Spearman in Technology
I have noticed that it is very common for trucking websites to ask for information. They don’t want anything to personal, like your Social Security Number, but they will ask for your address and phone number. Along with your phone number, they’ll have many survey types of questions. It seems innocent enough, they just want to see how their readers feel about subjects, right?
Take a deeper look at etrucker.com. They’re owned by Randall-Reilly Publishing. This is a huge conglomerate of publishing, telemarketing, and database companies. They go around collecting data from many sources like truck shows, websites, magazines, etc. and then use that data to help out their advertisers create targeted advertising. This link at their telemarketing company American Impact Marketing explains all of the companies involved.
I am not against honest advertising and some targeted advertising is good for the economy. Advertisers can keep prices lower because their advertising to a smaller group and this cuts the cost of products. My problem with their methods is that you unwittingly give a company information that is later turned into unwanted phone calls and junk mail from every trucking company that needs a driver.
I cannot say for sure that Randall-Reilly does this, but from looking at the connections of all of the companies, you can get a pretty good idea of what is happening. etrucker.com has some good information on it, but you can also be sure that it’s articles will be in favor of the trucking companies and other advertisers. Do you take an article from them about a “driver shortage” seriously now that you know who writes the author’s paycheck?
All of this information only took a few moments to find by simply looking at etrucker.com and following the links to find out who owns them, then doing a search on Google. Always do your research. The tools are there and they are easy to use. You can almost always consider the source about what you are reading by finding the true source of the information
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Google is your friend.
How’d we live before google? I remember going to the library….(walking barefoot thru the snow….uphill both ways) to check out books looking….looking for …….. stuff.
Nowdays it’s easy.
Good advice.
I forgot to mention false negatives on your research. Many times a company will go on a negative campaign against their competitors. If you find overwhelming negative posts about a company or if the post seem repetitive and general in the types of complaints, these can be false negatives.
Try contacting some of the posters of the negative comments. Do they have specifics on their negative review and is the negative review warranted.
I knew that this was out there, but I didn’t realize how big it was until a friend went to work selling for a travel company. They work on a deal where you can get referral fees if you get somebody to sell “under” you, so it sounds like a scam from the start. Then I found a ton of posts from people saying what a scam the company is. When I told my friend he may have been scammed, he had already researched the information and the company’s owner showed him how they had been dealing with the barrage of negative posts and who was making the posts. He’s now making money with the company and it turned out to be a nice income for him.
It’s a confusing world out there.
Mark, interesting post! I think all of us consumers have similar problems!
Although this article contains some truth, the idea that articles on etrucker are just manufacturered to sell products or services for the advertisers is false. Since I write for Randall-Reilly Publishing, I know that our editors do not give false or misleading information in the articles. We are probably not going to write something negative about a company that advertises with us, but our articles focus on the issues and always have credible sources including drivers. When was the last time you met a driver who didn’t tell you what he really thinks?
I know a driver who doesn’t tell you what he/she thinks- Driver Trainer/Driver Recruiter. When I started 10yrs ago, I clearly remember the trainers were encouraged to also be company recruiters. As was stated in another blog-recruiters get paid to recruit. NONE tell the truth. As an editor/writer, you my friend must cater to your advertisers and readers! I don’t think all publishers put out bogus/misleading info. However, the collection of personally identifiable data is NOT consumer privacy friendly. Most legit publishers/websites, like yours, have a specific privacy policy. If people give out info, that’s on them. However, I noticed some trucking employment websites ask for driver license# and even SSN# over unencrypted NON-SSL secure
connection! That’s crazy irresponsible web design. Anyone filling out a form is sending all private info in the clear over cyberspace. Can you say Identity Theft? I will give your articles/job listing a look but NEVER compete your surveys, only to have you sell info to direct marketers!!!
Very well put. My article is all true by the way. Common sense dictates that publishers are going to slant towards whoever is paying the bills. Their articles can be misleading when somebody does not take this into consideration.
I am simply pointing this out so fewer drivers are duped into thought processes induced by articles that do not tell the entire story. Until I researched this topic, I never gave this angle much thought, now I certainly do.