RE: Follow-up to question about getting feedback from users

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Robert Lauriston wrote:
 
> This isn't about you as the docs manager. It's a privacy issue for the
> customer.
> 
> When your customer is browsing your Web site, they're accessing your
> computer, and you're monitoring that use, which (absent local laws and
> any privacy policies to the contrary) is your right.
> 
> When your customer is using a local help file, collecting feedback
> without permission is an invasion of their privacy.
> 
> Any promise that the data will be used only in aggregate must be
> backed up by a written privacy policy that the user has a chance to
> read before agreeing to have the data collected.

Not only does it collect data without permission, and with no privacy
policy or other protections for the user -- it apparently does this
_surreptitiously_, without the user's _knowledge_. 

I'm just gobsmacked that a seemingly reputable company would promote
such a "feature" and that a seemingly intelligent person can't see the
ethical and legal problems with it. 

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






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