I am concerned for unsuspecting users who dish out their cellphone numbers to relative strangers as if they were Fourth of July noisemakers.
On the heels of Tuesday’s news that U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama will use cellular text messaging (and email, Twitter, etc.) to share his vice presidential pick before alerting the mainstream media through traditional press means, I already know this is the tip of the SMS iceberg.
Like many global citizens, I own a cellphone. I pay about $10 a month for an unlimited text messaging plan but I only text back-and-forth with friends and colleagues, people who I know also use the Short Messaging Service function of their phones.
I don’t provide my cellphone number to political activists or advertisers.
Do you?
While clapping at Obama and other politicans harnessing technology for its 21st century purpose, I wonder if would-be voters are aware that regardless which way the election tide turns, any data provided to candidates potentially remains available for them to use any way they want.
If you are an elected official or candidate reading this sentence, would you mind posting a comment below to state on the record that such data is not kept with your staff once Election Day comes and goes?
I wrote last month about the spirit of everyone wanting to be an ambassador of social networking and yearning to be loved and linked, but to what end? Do you share your digits with every Tom, Dick, and Harry who asks for your number to send you targeted messages?
I have no problem with SMS messaging, text messaging, call it what you will, as long as a person can opt-in or opt-out with ease. But I have some questions:
- Do users realize every incoming and outgoing message costs money? Do political and advertorial requests detail this cost?
- What is the prudent course of action when persistent incoming messages, while not spam, are perceived as such?
- Echoing a question from Inside Higher Ed, if you stop and think about last year’s Virginia Tech shooting and similar incidents on college campuses where students are more technologically-motivated than administrators, is text messaging the best way?
- If I grant permission to a person or company asking for them to send me text messages, do I have the ability to text them back and engage in an open and transparent one-to-one dialogue?
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Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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Hi Ari – I love the way Obama has used technology in his campaign.
But like you – I wouldn’t dream of giving out my cell phone number to folk who could use it to market their stuff to me. I’m tired of interruption marketing as it is.
I definitely wouldn’t give out my number since it’s basically guaranteed they will use it for other things.
This is definitely a trap I think many people have (and will) fall into as the SMS wave grows bigger.
@Cath: I fell sucker to Obama’s notion of alerting people about his VP pick by email or SMS, so I signed up my email address the other day.
Lo and behold, I’ve already received two emails from his camp asking me for donations and/or to visit the site. It’s a good thing I didn’t use my personal email address.
@Tim: The other aspect I just thought of, which echoes the above, is that with people following other people in social media, let alone old-fashioned word of mouth, news is old the moment it hits the web…begging the question why SMS is actually necessary.
Glad to see you. Stick around!
Yeah, all my friends who fell prey to the Obama VP message scam regret it. I think it was unscrupulous to not tell people in advance that that’s how they were going to use the info. I’ll bet they get donation requests for every campaign as long as they keep the same cell number.
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