Ads in My Twitter Stream – What Happened to Informed Consent Hootsuite?

A couple of days back I chose to follow my normal course of behaviour and play with any new Twitter clients for my much loved HTC Hero.  As yet there has been nothing on par with the truly awesome Gravity client on Nokia’s Series 60 by @janole so anything new gets a fair go.

I’d seen reviews of Hootsuite’s new client and after throwing a nice shiny baked ROM at the Hero I was able to download and install Hootsuite Lite.  There is a paid for version ($1.99 at time of writing) but as the only additional benefit I could see was the ability to handle more than 3 Twitter accounts (and I use but 1) there was little point in spending the cash just to see if it works.

Setup was simple enough, even though the you get hassled a couple of times to create a new Hootsuite account before being offered a connection to your Twitter account.

Now I’m not going to review the application other than to say it’s very usable, has some decent thinking around navigation and handles a Twitter account admirably – at least on par with the current leader Seesmic in my opinion.  But something odd happened after a feed refresh sometime on Saturday.

I was out and about, hit refresh and a curious new message appeared in my stream from someone I don’t follow.  This in itself given Twitter’s problems of last weeks with random tweets appearing was nothing too odd but this tweet had a different coloured background and the format of the message was odd.

I quickly sent out a tweet to the crowd asking if anyone else had seen these “ads” but everyone who responded hadn’t. Was this the first inkling of the much talked about Twitter advertising model.  If so it was pretty well exactly what I had expected it might be but had no knowledge of it having yet been enabled.

Of course being out and about research was a little hard to do.

So yesterday I sat down for half an hour and did some digging.  It turns out that Hootsuite have partnered with a third party Twitter advertising agency called 140Proof who’s model is to sell advertising messages injected directly into one’s stream by the client application.  They look and feel like tweets but they aren’t – they are put there ONLY in the application stream.

They are inoffensive and not at all obtrusive, as I said they pretty well looked and felt how I would expect a Twitter ad to be BUT I hadn’t asked for them and more importantly I couldn’t recall ever being informed that I was going to get them.  There were no signup T&C’s with the mobile app, no details easily found on Hootsuite’s web page, nothing.

A little more digging and it turns out that, according to this article on Techcrunch that,

Twitter clients pass 140 Proof a user ID list (with no names) and the public information contained in a Twitter users profile, and on the advertiser side, advertisers bid on ads to be directed toward users based on keywords in tweets, followers, as well as device, location and platform. 140 Proof’s algorithms calculates Twitterer’s “persona” based on public tweets and who they follow and serves ads to users based on this data.

YOU WHAT?  So without my permission Hootsuite passes my PI and graph to a third party who then does their thing with it, sells that bundle (anonymously granted) and throws back a targeted advert!

Now sure my stream is public and viewable by all but that doesn’t make it acceptable for a business to utilise that information for their own gain without at least first asking for permission.  What happens if you have a private non-publicly viewable Twitter stream?  Does Hootsuite not work or do they just blindly continue to pass that data on to 140 Proof?

I don’t mind the ads, they make sense, they (in theory and assuming I pay them attention) pay for Hootsuite to offer up their client for “free” (read no money there) but informed consent is required.

For the record NOT one of the adverts I  have seen over the last couple of days has been even vaguely “relevant” nor have I clicked through on any.

I’ll be having a chat with some people over just what consent they should have obtained as surely there must be a requirement in the EU but it’ll be more interesting to see just what sort of lifespan the 140 Proof model will have once Twitter actually do get their advertising live.

UPDATE: I am interested to hear from anyone who has knowledge of the BT/Phorm case being brought by the CPA;  specifically the abuse of Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).

If Hootsuite are intercepting my profile and tweet stream and shipping it off (hashed or not) to 140Proof for analysis and spam would this constitute a breach also?

Don’t get me wrong I don’t want Hootsuite punished I just wonder if this is/were the case what would be their knowledge of the issue and how would the choose to address it.

Internet Eyes Under ICO Investigation

Well it was always going to happen but today The Register are running a story that the launch of Internet Eyes has been delayed whilst the Information Commissioner’s Office checks on the legality of the service after concerns were raised.

Assistant Information Commissioner Jonathan Bamford told The Register:   “CCTV operators should use appropriately trained staff to monitor images. If a CCTV system is established to help prevent and detect crime, it would be appropriate to disclose images to law enforcement agencies where a crime needs to be investigated.

“However, it is not appropriate to disclose images of identifiable individuals for entertainment purposes or to place them on the internet.

“If images are to be released for identification purposes, this should not generally be done by anyone other than the law enforcement agencies where necessary when investigating a crime.”

I for one am hoping that in this case the ICO really does step up and put a halt to Internet Eyes.

Internet Eyes on TV – Watch, Learn & be… Disgusted?

UPDATE: ITV have rescheduled the piece for 18th February.  Shame as I was hoping to hear what Internet Eyes had to say for themselves.

Internet Eyes the citizen snooping CCTV advocate, about whom I have posted before,  is to be  featured on ITV’s Tonight program on 11th February at 19.30 according to their facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Internet-Eyes/108455634071?ref=nf.

I’m personally still appalled at the idea of not only Joe Public having an eye into private CCTV footage for the purpose of reporting observed miscreants but also the notion of this snooping being in some way ranked into league tables of spotters with prizes/rewards on offer for reporting.

Screencast of Models, Ownership and Privacy

Okay here is a screencast of my presentation from the recent BEUC Forum on Consumer Privacy.  It has taken longer than hoped to get up and running (call me a luddite – I’m just not a video person and so learning new tools has been a steep old learning curve).  BTW sorry for the slightly iffy sound quality (inc the slightly monotone narration), a super snotty cold is never going to help.

Proper thanks must go to the masses of wonderful people who make their photographs available under Creative Commons (especially those good enough to allow commercial use) without whom this just would have been a non-starter with stock art websites charging way beyond my means.  That and really I needed to hammer the CC license thing home – you’ll see why.

On the subject of Creative Commons, this screencast is available for you to take away, use & redistribute (yup even for commercial stuff) at will as long as it doesn’t get edited, attribution is given and all the licenses of embedded works respected (i.e. no nicking bits of other people’s stuff).

So to all those whose works I have used, here’s credit where it is due:

For anyone needing/wanting you can also download the presentation in 3GP format (approx 7mb) for your mobile/iPod here.

3UK – Resolution Reached

Okay I promise to try to keep this short(ish) but felt it only fair to actually post a note to say that a resolution has been reached over my protracted escaping from the clutches of the black-hole of customer service that is the mobile network 3.

Quick back-story for those not wanting to read the 2 part monster posts (here & here); I had cancelled, tried to leave, was prevented from doing so and then charged for the privilege of remaining an unwilling Customer.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I am a very lucky person.  Lucky in that I have the great privilege of having met and maintained contact with plenty of really cool (and useful) people in the mobile industry.

I made a phone call to a senior 3 PR manager (who was on holiday), recounted the story and by the opening of play the following day the mythical 3 Executive Office was calling me to discuss.

Long story, cut short they were very apologetic, ensured the correct cancellations and credits were applied and sent me on my merry way.  Job done.

So to that lovely 3 pr manager, thank you.

To the delightful chap from 3 Executive, I thank you also.

To the senior 3 director who rang me afterwards to discuss the sneaky, underhand and downright dirty tactics of the UK’s mobile industry as a whole over the number portability – a huge thanks.

As a note: the limp and ineffective Ofcom are releasing their draft paper on number fast-portability in August, which will make for interesting reading.

Halfords Customer Service Comes Through

A week or so ago I mentioned that I was entering the wonderful world of Customer Services this time with Halfords – the UK’s largest bike retailer (they are also pretty well known for tools and motoring accessories).

Simply I had bought a pair of bikes from Halfords, and over the course of a single week had revisited the store twice to rectify simple faults and mechanical failings.  Things that really shouldn’t but inevitably do happen with machinery.  Topping this of was a battle over in-store pricing which had meant I had lost out to the tune of 10% of the purchase price.

Well, despite taking nearly two weeks to respond (rather than the promised 5 days) Halfords CS cam back a couple of days ago.  Not only offering up a decent chunk of store vouchers for my inconvenience but also a straight refund on said 10%.

A great result and one I am really happy with.

Whilst I am honestly trying to avoid my CS rants it must be said they seem to be working for me right now and I can only advise everyone else; if you have an issue ask for help, and if that doesn’t work complain because maybe, just maybe UK companies are beginning to realise that they need to start trying to play nicely in this most modern if cash strapped of ages.

So Long (3UK) and Thanks for all the Frustration – Part 2

Unilaterally moving the contract goalposts is not on when the Customer loses out, and especially not on when that same power is not offered up to the Customer – have you ever tried to break a mobile contract early, they normally demand your firstborn as an “Early Termination Fee” irrespective of the reasoning?

I Took the Out.

Well documented on the various mobile forums were tales of horrendously long calls, multiple hoops to jump and pathetic retention attempts by 3.  But being one for a challenge and having seen the text message from 3 that made it quite clear one was at right to terminate should one wish I leapt in.

And all the forum messages were right.

3UK: “As a goodwill gesture 3 would like to offer you £20 for the inconvenience”

Me: “No thanks. I want to cancel the contract as allowed for in clause 10(?) of the agreement”

3UK: “Have you used the 3 Like Home Service?  The new pricing is in line with the EU recommendations.”

Me: “Just NO.  I want to terminate my previously acceptable chaining to 3 for another 10 months (or so) as I no longer trust 3 won’t move those goal posts again.”

It took a number of conversations over a good 50 minutes BUT eventually I was given the terminations group and offered up a PAC for porting my number over to another network.  They even unlocked my phone for a fee, which I had to haggle down from £90 odd on the grounds that the move was initiated by 3’s actions.

And so I went my merry way.

Time for a New Service

Now I’d  like to be clear here – I like 3 as a brand; they are fresh, truly innovative (not just the usual mobile operators trick of pseudo-innovation by releasing a new pricing plan), have some great plans, lead the market with their mobile data offerings.  Hell they even offer up a few decent phones (where’s that Android handset?).

I like 3 to the point that in the following couple of weeks I even took notice of several of their newly announced shorter 30-day commitment plans.  Hell they offered EVERYTHING I had/used prior on contract for about half the price.

I visited a 3 Store and asked “Can I transfer my out of contract 3 mobile number to another 3 account, say a Pay As You Go or another contract?” which was of course met with an affirmative response – after all why wouldn’t 3 want to let me retain myself as a Customer

So last week, a good 8 odd days before the PAC expired I rang 3’s direct sales team on their 0800 number, explained what I was trying to do and ordered up a 30 day SIM.

“Just ring Customer Services once the SIM arrives and they’ll sort the number transfer”

Number Porting Pitfall 1

The SIM arrived on 29th June (the day before that PAC ran expired) so dutifully I rang through to 3 Customer Services only to be told, in no uncertain terms, that there was no way in the system my existing 3 number could be ported to this new 30 day SIM, however moving the number to a PAYG was easily done.

When I queried why I had even been sold the thing by 3 the silence was deafening.

A quick transfer to another department saw a mercifully short cancellation of said SIM and another call to Customer Service.

Number Porting Pitfall 2

The second Customer Service call was met with a similar response, it appeared that 3 was completely unable to transfer my number to ANY other product.

When I re-queried this the response was once again a true shocker;

3UK: “What I’d suggest Mr er….. Craggs is that you could use your PAC number as it has another day to go before expiring to transfer your number to another network, and then in 30 days transfer back to the 3 account you want.”

Me: “Seriously?  You are suggesting that I actually leave the 3 network to come back in a month?”

Now I love the self-belief that what ever experience I have with A.N.Other network for those 30 days will be so bad that I’ll forget all this crap and come back to 3, cap in hand begging for a deal.  But it’s hardly a sustainable retention plan is it?

Number Porting Pitfall 3

So with all haste I head over to O2’s website, check out some of their comparative plans, find myself not at all disgusted by the offerings and give them a quick call to check on that whole PAC thing.

Turns out that the 30 days expiry for a PAC isn’t 30 days to use the PAC, rather the whole process HAS to be completed within that timeframe.  Sure would have been nice to have known this previously.

Best go back to 3 and ask for another.

Number Porting Pitfall 4

Yup you read that right, a process put in place to try to make the whole porting of numbers between operators more Consumer friendly has failed me a fourth time.  It’s not entirely far to blame the porting system I know, it is at least if not more so 3’s failing but my patience is beginning to wane by now.

So back on the phone to the inevitably droll and awkward Customer Service for another session.

This time something a little different, which whilst a change was not a welcome one.

3UK: “I see you have another 9 months to go on your account.”

Me: “Really, someone hasn’t updated your system, I cancelled the contract 30 days ago and got a PAC”

3UK: “But you haven’t used that PAC and it has expired.”

Me: “No it hasn’t it expires today, but more to the point I’d like another PAC so that I can actually complete the number porting to another network as suggested by you yesterday.”

3UK: “Sure, but as the ability to cancel your contract based on the removal of the 3 Like Home service ended yesterday and you have another 9 months to go we’ll have to charge you an ETF and….”

Me: “Errr NO!  I’ve tried for over a week now to remain a 3 Customer via two attempts to port that number to a new account so the ONLY reason I need a new PAC is because 3 has effectively stalled me.”

3UK: “I understand but I’m sorry there is nothing we can do.”

Me: “Please escalate this to someone who can help or transfer me to the Glasgow team so they can help.”

3UK: “I’m sorry we have no number for Glasgow and no one here can further help.”

Me: “I know you do have a number for Glasgow and this really isn’t good enough.  3 have created the problem, 3 have mis-sold, mis-led and mis-informed me and now I want 3 to fix it.  Please give me another PAC.”

3UK: “I will go and talk to my manager who probably won’t be able to help [what’s the point of them then? bc]”…. after a couple of minutes.. “thank you for holding Mr er… Craggs, as a one off gesture we will waive the ETF and issue a new PAC.”

Rather obviously at this point I assume a win.  Now I know as a professional that one is never supposed to assume anythng but really this does look a lot like I am getting just what I have asked for, no?

No.

3UK: “Can you please just tell me again why you want to cancel your account?”

BC: “I can, but I have already cancelled it, 30 days ago but for clarity’s sake…” and I recount the whole saga AGAIN.

3UK: “Now there are just a couple of things I need to make you aware of with regards the PAC.”

Me: “Okay, no one told me anything about it last time but carry on.”

3UK: “You must use it within 30 days and we will send you out a final bill for the next 30 days.”

Me: “WHAT?!>?”!?  Er… you want to charge me a whole months fees for a service I neither want or can use once the transfer takes place, a service which I had cancelled, a service which I have tried to replace and have been held up by 3’s failings.  No.  I’m willing to pay pro rata for the month whilst the PAC takes effect for the transfer but nothing more.”

3UK: “I’m sorry but we can’t do that you will be charged for the whole 30 days.”

Me: “Right then, let’s have that PAC, I’ll cancel the direct debit and I’ll take the billing issue up with someone who CAN help.”

And that my patient and attentive friends is where we are at so far.  I have activated the porting process and by Friday should be a fully signed up O2 Customer.  Not because I wanted to change network, not because 3’s reception problems annoyed me and not because 3 didn’t offer exceptional value for money.

I’ve moved on because that value for money was delivered by cutting corners on the single most important function of any business; it’s customer service.

I’ve moved on because Customer Services, a single lone department, had destroyed my trust in the brand.

In this day and age businesses live and die by their after-sales service.

But What About That Final Bill?

Well right now it is unresolved but I am in a privilidged position.  I have contacts, I have friends – and a great many of them are working within the mobile industry.  I can (and have) made direct contact with 3 executives over this issue.

They will converse on my troubles and probably provide the that resolution.

Hopefully they will learn and change, saving all those other poor sods, without my priviledge, the trauma and pain of navigating the disaster that is 3 UK’s Customer Service.

(Oh) Dear 3UK – Part 1

For those of you game enough to have read any of my previous posts you’ll be aware that I do like a good rant, and none more so than about the generally contemptible excuse for Customer Service that so many UK based companies inflict upon their paying Customers.

Well not wanting to disappoint my mate Carl Martin, who even publicly recognises my need to vent, this is a tale of a true love/hate relationship, filled with joy, success and deep deep despair at just how lamentable my UK experience with the mobile network operator 3 has progressed.  And it’s a long one so to spare the impatient / ADHD / bored / uncaring I will split it into most probably 2 parts….

In the Beginning

Those of you who know me, or how have hung around here for a while also know that when my family moved back to the UK in Sep 08 we crowd sourced a mobile network service and ended up with 3 – they offered great deals, decent phones and were full of promise.

BUT no sooner was I signed up to an 18 month contract it all went downhill fast.

Issues of Goodwill

Only 3 weeks after signing up, 3 decided to drop the cost of the plan I was on by £5 a month but when asked refused to apply this reduction to my contract as it was already in play.  When I pointed out this seemed a little unfair the response I received was shocking;

“Whilst we cannot apply this new pricing to an existing plan please be assured that when it comes to your renewal date in 17 or so months we will offer you a far better deal than we ever would a new Customer.”

Now I know churn is a massive pain for MNOs and that they have whole departments dedicated to retention but honest, simple and transparent treatment of ALL Customers would surely make for a better model long term.

Note: in a similar situation with T-Mobile and the G1 price plans had seen those Customers having their plans reduced.

A Deliberate Mistruth

There was an issue with a referral payment from 3 not being paid; simply they pay an existing 3 subscriber a referral fee for new signups.  After a couple of months I queried the payment only to be told by the 3 referral team (in Maidenhead I believe) that “No such referral application was made” even though I clearly made a note of it when joining up.  Peeved I dropped the subject only to discover two separate referrals were also made, one via Quidco and another via a friend’s website, which had been refused on the grounds of an existing referral already being processed.

In other words I had been lied to by 3 about the issue, I can’t really see another way of putting it.

Needless to say a subsequent phone call quoting these pieces of evidence saw the referral rapidly paid.

99.5% Population Coverage?

And of course the usual coverage stick had to waved at 3 after a few weeks of missed and dropped calls, along with super-flaky 3G service (and 3 don’t provide GPRS fall back coverage any more).  Thankfully the lovely Whatleydude came to my immediate rescue with the Spinvox service meaning that at least I got those messages via email.

Now whilst EVERYONE has problems with coverage, and yes every MNO spends inordinate amounts throwing new cells up I’m not convinced anyone has had the response from their operator that I received when questioning 3, and I paraphrase;

3UK: “from where did you purchase your account?”

Me: “It’s on my account details but I bought it online whilst talking to a customer services rep via online chat who pointed me to your website which clearly shows full HSDPA coverage for our address, in fact it’s the same map they had in the 3 shop at Bluewater when I visited.”

3UK: “Ah”

Me: “Ah?”

3UK: “Well if you had bought the account whilst talking to our telephone sales team they would not have sold you an account, or at least have advised you that because you are in a marginal at best reception area.”

Me: “What?  But your map says…”

3UK: “Sure I understand but we have more accurate maps here and we wouldn’t have sold you the account.”

Me: “So 3 sold me an account that they should have known at the time I can’t use?”

3UK: “Well, err..”

Could I break the contract, no.  Was I mis-sold, maybe, probably.

Note: when I raised the question of those coverage maps with senior 3 UK managers at a meetup in Holborn they openly admit that there are a number in circulation (including at the time their website) which perhaps were not the best.

Data, Data Everywhere Nowhere & Filtering

An off shoot of the coverage reared it’s head during Q1 of 2009 when mysteriously 3G signals disappeared in the most curious of places.  Gerrymoth reported outages in the North, Freshplastic to the West of London and for me a train journey through S.E London saw vast areas without so much as a sniff at data.

Furthermore certain data utilising applications just didn’t work over 3’s network, from Nokia’s FriendView to Nimbuzz.  And despite much complaining 3 vehemently denied at first knowledge of the problem then responsibility or any suggestion that they might be filtering out services, preferring the old “it’s their fault” response.

No one has every actually admitted where in their network the fault laid BUT fix it they did – eventually.

As for the 3G data coverage, that kind of resolved itself for some but for Gerrymoth it was too much and he publicly ditched 3’s services.  Freshplastic I feel is probably not far behind.

Detrimental Changes to Contract Terms

And then, sometime in May, 3 went the extra mile to annoy me and every other travelling Customer by mucking around with their “3 Like Home” service and removing it from play just when i) the EU brought in legislation to regulate calls and text messaging costs across the region and ii) Vodafone launched their roaming charge removal for the summer.

A truly incredible piece of poor timing if you ask me.

They had changed the service offering in such a way to have a detrimental affect on it’s value to me and under the terms of the contract that meant I was allowed to terminate the contract without any penalty.

After all the crap I’d been through, 3 had opened the door and offered up was an out, an escape, a get our jail free from a contract not half way through.

And so this story of woe now begins, yup begins because what happened next really cemented just why 3UK achieved the lowest consumer rating in 2009 for a mobile network operator’s Customer Service.

Next time: So long (3UK) and thanks for all the fish, frustration.

Halfords Customer Service

I am painfully aware that this blog seems to be sliding into the realms of berating companies for appalling customer service – for that I apologise to those who were expecting more interesting and probably technical stuff but I guess right now, in these hardened economic times it strikes me as interesting that companies haven’t cottoned-on that their survival starts and ends with just how well they treat customers.

Whilst I do have another good and another bad story to share (when I find time to write them up) here is another in the offing.

Halfords “we go the extra mile” are setting themselves up for another of my rants.  The local store in Dartford has been excellent but the corporate office seem to have forgotten that they to have a part to play.  Maybe they are busy so for a few days yet I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and hold fire on the whole saga, but for now;

If you say you’ll answer enquiries within 5 days, DO NOT keep people hanging around longer.

Breville UK fail the customer service test

Something I have found of UK based companies recently is an attitude towards customers that borders on contempt.

I’ve had lies and mistruths from ThreeUK, outstandingly poor service from TescoDigital, regionalised printer ink from HP and now Breville steps up to the proverbial (hot) plate with another region based excuse for lousy service.

A few years back we bought what was at the time a top-of-range Breville 800ES   espresso machine.  It’s a beast of a machine which cost us a lot of New Zealand dollars for a home (non-commercial) machine and until today has served without so much as a hiccup. 

But today the funny wee double-skinned pressurised basket (the bit that hold the coffee grounds) finally gave up.  I’ve cleaned it meticulously since new keeping the myriad of tiny holes clean and clear but flow the coffee will no more. 

A quick read around the net and it looks like I need a new basket.

No problems Breville is a BIG company with offices just about everywhere so I dropped them an email asking where and how I could purchase a replacement.  I know Breville sells them from all that reading.

The response, whilst prompt, left me cold and seething…

Aside from the appalling lack of punctuation & capitalisation it appears that Breville UK find themselves completely unable to apply any human aspect or creative thinking into retaining my long standing loyalty to their products.

A straight forward “we don’t sell it in the UK so tough” is NOT customer service – in fact it’s basically telling me that as I was not their customer they have no service for me.

A simple more human response would have been acceptable, even a “why don’t we give Breville USA or Breville Aus a quick call and see if we can source one” or a “sorry we don’t stock these in the UK but you could try…”

Not hard really.

So now I start searching for third party baskets – Saeco apparently have one that should fit.

Will I buy another Breville coffee machine – not likely.