零售商已经盯上你了

    相反，它应该成为零售商学习适应透明度实践以获取有用信息（同时又不会让顾客受到惊吓）的第一步。或许诺德斯特龙公司本应该在其动跟踪程序前预先警告顾客，或者提供一个简单的退出方案，以告知客户，如果他们拒绝跟踪，他们将错失大量的好买卖。

    由于缺乏开放性和规则，商家可以随心所欲地利用人们的信息。没错，去过几趟家电商场之后，你的手机突然获得了一张购买电视机的半价优惠券，这的确是件好事。但如果你在当地一家药店某种药品的货架前多徘徊了几次后，你的保险费骤然上涨，不知你将作何反应呢？这些数据有可能落入“别有用心”的人手中，没有什么能够阻止数据采集者不会把它出售给那些谋求利用这些数据的人。

    目前围绕顾客数据采集的隐秘性也引发了对于安全隐患的担忧。收集顾客海量信息的公司有责任投入巨资保护这些数据，同时告知顾客所收集信息的内容以及保护信息的方式。

    安全并不是廉价品，一些公司目前采取的“现在入侵，以后担忧”的态度显示，保护这些数据或许并没有被摆在重中之重的位置上。

    企业依赖客户。一个人选择在Facebook上公布自己给孩子更换尿布的时间表并不意味着他赋予了卖尿布的超市窥探自己的权利。

    然而，在某人从安全系数低下的公司盗取这些非法获得的数据之前，消费者应该行使自己的权力。购物者应该要求掌握商家跟踪他们的具体情况。如果不能获得一个满意答复，人们在购物时就该关闭自己的手机，或者找一个能够阻止跟踪的应用程序。目的就是要确保用户知道这些应用程序正在盗取什么信息。（财富中文网）

    译者：任文科

    Instead, it should serve as a first step in the learning process of how to tailor the practice of transparency in order to gain useful information without creeping out customers. Maybe Nordstrom should have warned customers before it started tracking them, or offered a simple opt out solution that notified customers of all the great deals they'd be missing if they weren't tracked.

    With no openness and no rulebook, companies can do with your information what they please. Yes, it would be great to get a half-off coupon for a television delivered to your phone after making a few trips to an electronics store, but what if your insurance premiums went up after you lingered a little too often around the shelves of certain medications at your local pharmacy? This data can be used in nefarious ways, and there's nothing to stop the data collectors from selling it to those looking to take advantage.

    The current secrecy surrounding the collection of customer data also brings up concerns about security risks. Companies that gather troves of information about their shoppers have an obligation to invest heavily in protecting that data, as well as informing customers about what they collect and how they protect it.

    Security isn't cheap, and the current "invade-now-worry-later" attitude of some companies suggests that keeping this data protected may not be a top priority.

    Businesses are beholden to their customers. Just because a person chooses to announce the diaper-changing schedule of his child on Facebook doesn't give the supermarket where he buys those diapers the right to spy on him.

    Still, it is up to consumers to use their power before someone steals their ill-gotten data from companies with inferior security. Shoppers should demand to know how they are being tracked. When they don't get a satisfactory answer, they should turn off their phones while shopping, or find an app that will block tracking. Just make sure you know what information that app is stealing.