3 ms·

I think you’re focusing way too much on the fact that the template is written from the perspective of an existing customer. On reading the template, it seems s

by mlthoughts2018 8y ago

I think you’re focusing way too much on the fact that the template is written from the perspective of an existing customer. On reading the template, it seems super obvious that it doesn’t assume a goal of only being applied to situations when you’re already a highly engaged customer. Things might be on a spectrum. I might have signed up for a newsletter years ago, then later come to regard that company as a big data risk, then accidentally forget about my old newsletter account. It would be fine to call myself “an existing customer” in that case, even though my connection to the company is not like a vigorous customer relationship with a company whose services I use all the time. That’s just a common idiom, very clearly not intended to mean the template is intended for spamming around to every big box company you’ve ever engaged with or something. You can write, “I’m your customer,” while still feeling that you don’t trust that company and what your request for a comprehensive overview of how they use your data to be taken seriously (hence the template’s value).

jacquesm 8y ago
> I might have signed up for a newsletter years ago, then later come to regard that company as a big data risk, then accidentally forget about my old newsletter account. In that case it looks like the burden lies with you, not with the company and to send a letter like this in that context would be total overkill. I'd start off with a simple request to remove my data.
- mlthoughts2018 8y ago
  But I would be worried about what data they collected, and who they might have sold it to, even if they had never yet done anything suspicious or wrong directly towards me. Another way to put it is: I’m generally deeply mistrusting of corporate entities collecting my data at all — even very upstanding corporate entities — and believe basic prudence requires me to treat them all with skepticism about my data.

jacquesm 8y ago

> I might have signed up for a newsletter years ago, then later come to regard that company as a big data risk, then accidentally forget about my old newsletter account. In that case it looks like the burden lies with you, not with the company and to send a letter like this in that context would be total overkill. I'd start off with a simple request to remove my data.

mlthoughts2018 8y ago
But I would be worried about what data they collected, and who they might have sold it to, even if they had never yet done anything suspicious or wrong directly towards me. Another way to put it is: I’m generally deeply mistrusting of corporate entities collecting my data at all — even very upstanding corporate entities — and believe basic prudence requires me to treat them all with skepticism about my data.