Acxiom: the company that knows if you own a cat or if you're right-handed | Hacker News Reader

Acxiom: the company that knows if you own a cat or if you're right-handed

telegraph.co.uk

30 pointsvaksel11 comments

"FYI man, you can sit at home and do absolutely nothing -- and your name goes through like 17 computers a day, man. 1984? Yeah, right, man, that's a typo. Orwell's here now and he's livin' large. We have no names, man, no names. We are nameless. ...Can I score a fry?"

Seriously, this goes on all the time. I used to work for a company that could divine your age, sex, race, marital status, and income and education levels from your cable TV viewing habits.

I launched my career at Acxiom... it's a fascinating company that deals in HUGE database problems.

It's also terrifying to know just how much information they have, and how aggressive they are in using it.

I have created a startup that attempts to break this model of selling your information without your knowledge. It’s called MyInfoTrader [www.MyInfoTrader.com]. The service is fully voluntary and pays back the users when a user’s address is sold for a mailing list.

Please check it out; I am very interested in your comments.

If I were in any way inclined to use such as service I'd immediately stop once I saw the front page. It looks like a sketchy website. There's no way I'd entrust my personal information to a site looking like that.

I like the idea, but not the faux-wood visual interface, which reminded me of a Flash game at first blush. I think the weak part is you're offering coupons, rebates and special offers. These are already used and abused by many websites, and my first reaction was 'meh...more spam' - which is unfair, because such things do offer a value to the consumer...but it's just that I seem to get special offers when people have something they want to promote, rather than when I want to buy.

Suggestion: give users points, then let them claim the rewards they actually want. This would be a source of more saleable data in itself. Alternatively, give out cash. Since the amount owed to any individual user is miniscule, you could adopt a lottery model and give 1 user out of 1000 a $100 every month, or whatever your numbers allow.

It's a good concept, I just think you need something to set yourself apart from other information marketing companies and give you an unusual angle.

I want to second this suggestion. With some good advertising and some bad math you could probably convince some users that they're practically guaranteed(!) to earn money from one of the lottery's run whenever there data is sold. Tie that to some instand credit card (paypal account?) and you could also track what they choose to buy with their winnings.

Does anyone remember the name of that new credit card company that is sopposed to be competing with paypal and Google Checkout?

Thank you for the comments. I am working toward a better look and feel but I now recognize that I am not a graphics designer.

The coupons and stuff are from the advertisers. I can’t control what they send in any way. The real value was in the fact that 75% of the sale of the mailing list was distributed back to the people on that list. The other benefit is that you get the information of who is purchasing that information.

The model I am trying to put forward is where the people are in charge of the information that is traded about them.

If you're interested in all of the different classifications that Acxiom came up with, I documented them last year in a blog post:

http://seanmountcastle.com/2008/01/01/whats-your-segment/

" "You're using Facebook to say all kind of things that you wouldn't say in public," he says. "My grandmother thought that the phone was an intrusion into her life. Why would this person call rather than knock on the door? Now we just accept it." "

That doesn't necessarily make it a good thing though... At least with facebook or a phone you get to choose some of the data that is held on you.

I can't speak for all of their data but they quality of their address and geocode data for Canada was not very good (as of 2005). The formatting was fine but it was outdated by as much as a few years.

It's crap like this that makes me want to go Amish.

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