Lotus Marketplace
Lotus Marketplace was a
invasion of privacy. This program was rather large (even by today's[when?] standards), as it was supposed to be released on several CD-ROMs
.
Lotus Marketplace was to be released in two editions, Lotus Marketplace: Business (containing information about businesses) and Lotus Marketplace: Households (containing information about peoples and households).
The Business edition of this program contained information about 7 million
Yellow Pages
, but could quickly and flexibly be searched. Unlike the Households edition, this edition was not so controversial and was released in October 1990, but was cancelled along with the Households edition; concerns about profitability were cited.
The Households edition of this program became infamous and the object of considerable opprobrium because it was supposed to contain
customer privacy issues (because by using this program telemarketers could get hundreds of names and addresses, and mass mail those addresses without addressees' consent). The backlash online was particularly intense, with a new Usenet newsgroup formed to discuss it. Information was circulated online about how to contact Lotus and request the removal of one's information from the database; more than 30,000 people would eventually do so. The decision to not release it was seen as a victory for online activism.[1]
See also
- Privacy
- Customer privacy
- Data privacy
- Computer ethics
- Telemarketing
Further reading
- "A Victory for Computer Populism", Langdon Winner. Technology Review, May–June 1991, page 66.
- Persuasion and Privacy in Cyberspace: The Online Protests over Lotus MarketPlace and the Clipper Chip, by Laura J. Gurak New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.
References
- ISBN 0-415-19140-8
External links
- The Lessons of the Lotus MarketPlace: Implications for Consumer Privacy in the 1990s by Mary J. Culnan (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility)
- Computer Privacy Threats and Remedies by Lance Hoffman (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility)
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