Facebook-Linked Marketer Acxiom Plunges After Policy Shift | Hacker News Reader

Facebook-Linked Marketer Acxiom Plunges After Policy Shift

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125 pointsJumpCrisscross32 comments

As an Arkansas resident, I can say that Acxiom is a one of the big tech companies for the state. Their company culture seems pretty great; they also do a lot for the community too.

They are just yet another data mining/privacy invading marketing company

That type of company should be shunned, not touted as big tech

Probably one of the original data mining/privacy invading marketing companies, if you want to be exact.

Any thoughts on why OP is getting downvotes? It’s insightful and shares a perspective that only a local would have.

It is possible for a company to have a nice work culture even while doing exploitive work. Doing good by the local community seems even easier to believe

That is nice that a company that does objectively bad things has a nice culture.

While I definitely disagree with the op, I personally didn't downvote, but honestly who gives a shit about downvotes?

Right, just like Google has free massages and dry cleaning

Down votes silence unique perspectives creating echo chambers

He said something factually true that people don’t want to hear because it doesn’t reconcile with their preset “opinion”.

Or people think the actions of a company outweigh the harm it does via it's business model?

Or they thought the comment didn't attempt to form a balanced argument based on the context of the original article?

Or any other reason to downote aside from "Hurrrr. I'm just a sheep".

Try not to assume everyone here is dumber than you.

(PS no need for the scare quotes on "opinion". The use of that word was already negative in context. The scare quotes push the disdain a little bit too far)

But he did not attach any moral attributes. He added valuable information that most of us don’t have. That’s the entire point of a forum, and his comment is the only interesting one in this thread.

I don't disagree. I didn't downvote it. What I object to is your simplistic characterisation of those who might have downvoted it.

>>He added valuable information that most of us don’t have.

Devil's advocate: he added his OPINION, which, even if he's unbiased (not an employee for example,) it's still an opinion.

I’m sure a lot of companies that do horrible things have great work culture. That should not be a reason for such companies to exist.

I mean, I'm sure you could say the same about some coal companies, too.

It doesn't mean we should be keeping those coal companies alive.

Like most companies, team culture depends on what division you're working in. I hear some teams there can be great. Overall culture of the company is a different matter.

The downvotes are likely because, much as the other reply to the OP outlines, they're not really right. While Acxiom _has_ been a staple in the AR tech community for decades, they have also garnered a pretty horrible reputation over the last ~10 years or so. The company is a slow-moving monolith with frequent layoffs, stagnant (low) pay, and no real direction. People are leaving in droves.

They actually recently sold off (or announced a plan to) the portion of the business that exists in AR[1]. Instead they will focus on some startup-ish company they acquired in the SFBA, which seems to be their only profitable venture at the moment (or the only one the CA-based CEO is interested in).

[1] http://katv.com/news/local/axciom-to-spin-off-or-sell-its-tr...

In Arkansas, it probably is big tech.

I guess I meant a large tech employer, not that their technology was highly advanced

> they also do a lot for the community too.

Their local community, maybe. On the whole, I don't think it's appropriate to take this with much consideration when evaluating the company as a whole. Remember, people used to think Al Capone was a pretty great guy as well because he used some of his earnings to fund public works.

They are also notorious for low salaries (even for the Little Rock area) and for consistently having yearly lay offs that aren't performance based, only to rehire the same people a month or 2 later.

If you think a culture of fear is a good company culture to have, then we have different definitions what that means.

I assure you that they do not have a good name in the local tech community there.

They recruited heavily from the IT program at my university in Arkansas to the point that everyone pretty much knew the recruiter.

Somewhere during my time there I walked up to this recruiter expecting them to be recruiting for Acxiom and was surprised to see them recruiting for someone else. The whole thing (including details I’m omitting) seemed odd to me, but this might explain it.

If you're talking about their main recruiter for YEARS, she went somewhere else a few years ago.

I think everyone even a little related to the SD/IT field in the state has her on their LinkedIn or has at least talked to her before. She's really great!

I believe they went to work for an offshoot company of Acxiom

My statement was just anecdotal from what I've heard. I don't have a lot of inside info, so thank you for sharing.

Np, just to be clear my experience is "insider's experience" in the sense of being involved with others in the tech scene in the area, not the first hand experience with the company myself. I've known and worked with plenty of people who have worked for the company, enough to know it wasn't a place I wanted to go. So take what I said with a grain of salt as well.

I merely wanted to offer a counter point based on what I know. There are definitely far worse companies out there.

Acxiom used to be a sizable vendor in the Skiptracing arena.[0] That's what debt collection companies would use when they wanted to get ahold of someone. If you couldn't get ahold of the debtor in question, you'd find out who he's related to or where he lives and call his brother, call his roommate, call his neighbor, etc.--all in an attempt to "contact" (read: harass) the debtor.

That should provide some insight as to what they might be doing with your Facebook data.

For reference, they're not too big in that particular space anymore. The largest one I'm aware of LexisNexis. And yes, that LexisNexis, the one you used to go to the library and search alongside JSTOR for academic articles.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skiptrace

Funnily enough it turns out the FBI used Acxiom data to locate the 9/11 hijackers back in 2001[0]

[0]: http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive...

The Hymn of Acxiom seems appropriate to mention here... https://m.soundcloud.com/vienna-teng/05-the-hymn-of-acxiom

I didn't know Axciom was a real company until today.

They know about you though. :)

It's gonna hurt their "Ads Manager" alot as majority of marketers use "Audience Insight" tool for their campaigns.

Facebook and many many other tech companies are built on gathering as much data they can on their users.

Should people revolt (hint: they probably won't) tech is in for a world of hurt.

Good. Others should follow suit.

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