The Truth About ChaCha.com
OK. I just wanted to get this out before someone else does, and I’m left standing here saying “doh”. Many of you may have heard of this service called ChaCha.com. They say that it’s like having a smart friend that you can call anytime for answers to random questions. You simply call or text in your questions and you will get a response within minutes. It seems to be a quality service. I haven’t heard too many complaints yet, and I actually know a few people that work for ChaCha; they seem to enjoy it.
(The big hairy butt lurking around the corner) I strongly feel that your privacy will be compromised in the future if you choose to use this service. With mobile advertising gaining popularity, your mobile phone number along with other personal information will become extremely valuable. As mobile marketing matures, more dollar signs will be placed on your number.
I know what you’re thinking. ChaCha has a privacy policy that says they won’t share my personal information. That’s right, but that will not deter companies from contacting ChaCha and offering to pay big money for their number list. Let’s consider email marketing for a moment. Wouldn’t you say that you could buy an email list from any company at any time? I would. Every company has a privacy policy that most likely states that they will not share your private information with a third party, but I think we all know that’s BS. Why else would your inbox keep getting blown up?
I don’t want to totally discredit ChaCha, but I honestly feel that the main motive is to harvest your mobile phone number for its implied future value. You might think I’m being paranoid, but consider yourself warned. Swim at your own risk.
Bil, I agree with you on this one. (Wait for the but) I think that there are many services out there that will be in this game too. Just like your email it will only be a short time before everyone has your cell number too. Email spam lists can be generated quite quickly from harvesting university white pages or even blogs and twitter accounts. Many of these services now have your cell number as well. Twitter and facebook practically make you give them your number if you want any additional functionality. I think we will all just have to get a junk cell phone that we use for those kinds of services.
Maybe 2 iPhones!
Hi -
Thanks for writing about ChaCha. I am the VP of Marketing. I wanted to write to ensure you that we have no intention, whatsoever to EVER rent or sell your phone number. Its just not cool and we don’t want to upset any of our loyal users. Our revenue will come from advertisers. In some states, you can see some of our ads running now for McDonald’s and the Obama campaign.
I’m pretty sure that privacy policies are legally binding, but who’s to say that those have never been violated. It’s really up to the users to realize who spilled the beans and then to prove it, right?
Dustin, you have brought up a good point. It seems like your phone number is associated with almost everything these days. With the growing popularity of social networking, providing your phone number is a must if you want to receive the full benefit. It seems that in the very near future, many companies will be faced with a tough moral decision. To sell your number or not. Can you trust that they will make the right choice?