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April 18, 2010

Why you shouldn't use Internet coupons

It's called zero privacy PLUS tracking your purchasing habits far more than Google does.

There's also some sneakiness:
The coupons, for companies as diverse as Ruby Tuesday and Lord & Taylor, are handled by a company called RevTrax, which displays them on the retailers’ sites or on coupon Web sites, not its own site.
It's even worse if you fan a company on Facebook, use their Web-based coupons, and a company like RevTrax is the coupon originator/handler:
“When the consumer redeems the offer in store, we can track it back, in this case, not to the Google search term but to the actual Facebook user ID that was signing up,” he said. Although Facebook does not signal that Amy Smith responded to a given ad, Filene’s could look up the user ID connected to the coupon and “do some more manual-type research — you could easily see your sex, your location and what you’re interested in,” Jonathan Treiber, RevTrax’s co-founder, said. (Rob O’Neil, director of online marketing at Tag New Media, which works with Filene’s Basement, said Filene’s did not do this at the moment.)
If you've been a cyberclipper, read for yourself and perhaps think again.

I had yet to use any Web coupons before reading this, and I sure as hell won't now.

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