An investigation into dozens of companies selling data on millions of Americans labeled "actively pregnant" or "shopping for maternity products" caught the attention of a California-based designer. She went out to pick up her mail. She looked through her letters and found a mailer from Buy Buy Baby, a chain of stores owned by Bed Bath & Beyond that sells products for infants and young children. At the bottom of the email, there was a message. Lucas was familiar with the topic of parenthood. She said the mailer was for her daughter who had just moved out. She asked her daughter if she had any new information.
Her daughter said that she didn't think it was a good idea.
Lucas asked if the ad team had learned anything about what a terrible idea it was to send the mailers. My daughter is having a baby. Today, I got this. She is not preggo.
I know how this stuff works and I also know the horror stories because I educate designers about data privacy a lot.
Lucas' account is similar to the tale of a teenager who was outed to her father as pregnant by a Target coupon and the subject of a New York Times story. The teen was identified as pregnant by her purchases.
My daughter had been pregnant several years ago and this mailer shook me a bit. Lucas said that the daughter and her son had been living with him for a few years and recently moved into a new place with her boyfriend.
I didn't know what her future would be if she found out she was pregnant.
This type of advertising has been around for a long time. Companies can still get it wrong if they get it wrong from multiple sources. The New York Times reported that Mothers Lounge sent maternity coupons to women even though they weren't pregnant. Most women could not remember signing up for a list for maternity deals through a third-party company.
We tried to get in touch with Bed Bath and Beyond to see if this was the same situation as before.
According to an investigation by Gizmodo, 32 different data brokers were selling information on over 2 billion U.S. residents. There's a lot of overlap between these companies. The "Pregnancy & Maternity Life Stage" holds millions of users according to some. Some people were interested in shopping for maternity products. Companies pay for this data based on how many users they have. The price can be as low as 49 cents per person.
She said that since the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the start of the #MeToo movement, many designers are trying to curb careless use of user data. If they are the only ones at the company advocating for good practices, they don't have the power to stop bad ideas from being executed.
Without a regulatory incentive, it's up to companies to adopt new ethical principles to restrict themselves in how they mess with user data
The long-term value of being ethical standard-bearers needs to be understood by companies.
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