There was a post on the digital point forums from a newbie (1 post wonder) poster saying he had just purchased a list containing all attendees of the Affiliate Summit. The user also posted a link to a CSV file which was distributed to exhibitors of the event. The post was reported to the moderators/admins of Digital Point and being I am one I checked it out. I followed the link and downloaded the list… it contained names and home addresses of attendees of ASW 2007…
My home address was listed as was many other affiliates. Being a moderator I deleted the link.
Shawn Collins tried to use the ole “but everyone is doing it” defense in that thread:
As is standard with any conference, Affiliate Summit makes the snail mail addresses available to exhibitors at each conference.
I was pretty surprised at this. I was not familiar with this “conference standard” of giving out all attendees mailing addresses to Sponsors and Exhibitors.
Later Shawn commented in the thread (which i merged with the first):
Also, during the registration process for Affiliate Summit, there is an option to opt-out of having the snail mail address shared with exhibitors.
The CSV that I downloaded from that link there are 1586 (I think only 1500 attendees at that event back then so that’s weird.. ) names on the list with attendees personal information. I guess those people missed that part or did not care about their info being distributed.
I have been to pretty much every conference in the industry (I think) and I had never heard of these lists of attendees being sold (or included with price of sponsorship/exhibitor however you want to say it).
So I reached out to the head of basically every conference I have ever been to…. pointed them to that thread and asked them their conferences policy on distributing conference goers private information.
Danny Sullivan (SMX Conferences):
Hey no we don’t do this. We do not share attendees personal data.
Kevin M. Ryan (Vice President, Search Engine Strategies Conference):
Our policy is that we do not sell, rent, barter or otherwise release delegate information.
Brett Tabke (Webmasterworld PubCon Conferences):
We have never given out so much as one name, email, or postal address to any
one. We have no plans to do so in the future.
Rick Calvert (BlogWorld & New Media Expo) :
Exhibitors are allowed to collect attendee data at the show either by
collecting business cards, or using what we call a “lead retrieval unit”
(the little machines exhibitors use to scan your badge). Again this is only
done with the attendees consent.
To be fair to Shawn I am sure this is all perfectly legal and somewhere in his terms of service he has spelled out that he has the right to sell your info (or to give it to paying sponsors/exhibitors).
I guess I will look for the “opt out” box from now on.
Maybe you guys are wiser then me and opted out from having your info sold ?
December 5, 2008 at 9:17 pm
cool stuff
July 27, 2008 at 10:38 am
I’m sure every one would be pissed, especially the big players. That stuff could be pretty dangerous if you think about it.
July 25, 2008 at 7:53 am
Do you believe there even was an opt out box? I would like to know whether my information is going to be shared and if I attended and was on that list I would be really pissed.
July 24, 2008 at 11:09 pm
thats pretty disturbing to find out. I wonder whats done with that information if it goes into the wrong hands. Not a good privacy policy at all.
July 24, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Wow … thats a sad news to hear from affiliate summit. Didn’t expect to see this.
July 24, 2008 at 5:53 am
I think you can require even more.
July 23, 2008 at 10:08 pm
I would think the opt out box should be pointed out if not noticed by the participant. Not everyone is comfortable sharing their personal details.
July 23, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I’ll sell my information to the highest bidder…Do I hear $1 Million dollars anyone? anyone? ANYONE?????????
July 23, 2008 at 3:50 pm
As an exhibitor at a lot of conferences in other industries, I have purchased many of these lists in order to send offers to other people. It may not be common in the internet biz, but it is very common elsewhere.
They DO NOT give out emails (i’ve never seen that).
There are companies however that pay people to get every single business card they can at shows, and then they sell those off.
July 23, 2008 at 1:58 pm
They can’t change the past but they can react about it to avoid future bad consequences! Anyway you are right people should be more caresuk in the future.
July 23, 2008 at 12:49 pm
A bunch of conferences are said to have done this. That being said, I’m sure its legal. Even if its not nice, nothing can be done about the past, just be more careful in the future I guess…
July 23, 2008 at 10:34 am
There will always be information leaks, and no one will ever admit it.
July 23, 2008 at 10:34 am
Not cool dude! Not cool!
July 23, 2008 at 8:52 am
@Bryan: While this is totally fine in any “classical” industry, giving out this information, especially as an electronic document that could freely spread over the net, is an absolute no-go for any IM event. I don’t care for the legal side, it’s bad style and ruins trust.
July 23, 2008 at 7:26 am
This is not a good practice. But such things often occur.
July 22, 2008 at 11:24 pm
I wonder where the “newbie” got the info. It had to be released somewhere or else it wouldn’t have been posted.
July 22, 2008 at 9:46 pm
T+his does seem a bit sleezy, and if there is an opt out box, it should be prominently displayed, so that there is no way to miss it!
July 22, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I’ve been to a lot of conferences both as an exhibitor and an attendee, and it is fairly common to give out or sell the registered attendee list to the exhibitors. What makes it feel dirty in the IM field vs a lot of other conferences is that most IM’s are single ops, so the information is often a home address.
With a lot of trade conferences, the information you register with is company address, email, etc. So its not as much a feeling of invasion of privacy.
If you are a single op, I suggest getting a blind mailbox at somewhere like mailboxes etc. That will protect your location.
July 22, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Busted big time. I guess I can cross one conference off my list. Thanks for saving me some bucks.
July 22, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Oh well. I have been to conferences in other industries as well and always get information afterwards. They can send me information if they want and I know I signed up for a network after they sent me a card in the mail because I forgot about them. You should know to read the fine print before you start complaining.
July 22, 2008 at 7:14 pm
dirty dirty dirty
July 22, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I once signed up to attend a trade show (education industry) and invited my husband and brother to go along. There was no opt-out box. Shortly after that, I started getting so much mail from the exhibitors that it wouldn’t even fit in the mailbox that I rent at the UPS Store. They were mailing the same items to all THREE of us. I called to complain, but the lists had already been distributed. There was nothing I could do except return to sender in hopes they’d remove the names from their mailing lists. Two years later, I am still getting mail from it. In addition to that, I got fax junk mail due to my fax number being published. Thankfully I had the ability to block certain numbers from sending faxes so I was able to put an end to that eventually.
July 22, 2008 at 6:06 pm
busted, nice work shoe.
July 22, 2008 at 5:33 pm
all i can say..is… HA
Karma karma karma
July 22, 2008 at 5:24 pm
I have to agree with JamiesB on this…I’m researching tradeshows for my company right now and ALL of the ones I’ve seen provide an attendee list (either pre-show or post-show) to exhibitors/sponsors.
The exhibiting costs factor that in. I know you’re going off your anecdotal evidence and the answers from a few of your contacts however perhaps this refusal to sell lists is something unique to the SEO shows you attend…all the big interactive advertising shows like Ad Tech sell the data…
July 22, 2008 at 5:01 pm
hmm I don’t remember an opt out box…
July 22, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Now I can see why the DP has sunk to such levels. But this is beyond compare. Good catch Shoe!!
July 22, 2008 at 4:31 pm
We have exhibited at the Direct Marketing Association, Ad:Tech and many other shows. Almost all do make available to exhibitors the files of postal addresses. Before the DMA show, it is not uncommon for me to receive 2 – 4 pieces of mail per day for weeks.
July 22, 2008 at 4:17 pm
WOW! This explains some of my junk mail. Was wondering how they got my contact info.
I’ll read between the lines from now on, thanks for the heads up Jeremy!
July 22, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Good point….lol
July 22, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Never even saw the opt out box
July 22, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Most I have been require the vendres to scan your badge to enter into contest to get your info. That seems like a more fair method. Even then I think they just give out email.
July 22, 2008 at 2:53 pm
s/spam/market towards…
July 22, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I am actually surprised people had to submit home addresses
July 22, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Well that’s some good info to know, I don’t get why they would even offer this, it makes no sense to jeopordize your crediblity.
July 22, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Giving a mailing lists of attendees to sponsors and exhibitors is a standard practice for many shows, especially consumer shows. It is also standard to provide attendees an opt out and to require that exhibitors and sponsors do not share their lists. Show organizers often “seed” these lists so they can identify which exhibitors or sponsors break the rules.
July 22, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Depends on your business model
July 22, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Its the exhibitors, they are advertising their businesses thus their details should be available on-line as a reference for visitors.
July 22, 2008 at 1:28 pm
This is not good business practice, especially personal details like home addresses
July 22, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Well maybe the seller need money so badly till he break the rules
July 22, 2008 at 1:08 pm
btw, did the person who bought the information get it from Shawn? It could be that it was provided freely to the exhibitors who in turn sold it.
July 22, 2008 at 1:07 pm
See above to previous comment.
July 22, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I don’t know him from Adam. I’m a business man that checks the facts which is rare nowadays. It’s in the TOS, there is an opt-out, and it’s not resold to third parties. The post on DP explains that someone else is exploiting the list. That’s the person everyone should be going after. There is a huge difference in providing snail mail without phone number info to vendors at a conference in which that person is attending (who has full knowledge of this if they read the TOS), and selling an unqualified list to third parties.
July 22, 2008 at 1:01 pm
giving your personal information without your consent sucks…Now that this info is out, I believe that Affiliate Summit will lose some attendees.
July 22, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Its just marketing use PO-BOX address next time
July 22, 2008 at 12:57 pm
To spam people, that’s it as I think.
July 22, 2008 at 12:56 pm
How can you make the case he does not sell it? Does he give it away for free? I guess that is worse!
July 22, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Go after Shawn??! What do you mean by that? Shawn is not the person who publish this information.
July 22, 2008 at 12:56 pm
are you stupid or just a shawn collins fanboi ? How is he not selling the information… you have to be a paid sponsor or exhibitor to get it.
July 22, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Fortune?!! I don’t think so.
July 22, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Spammers are everywhere, and that’s normal that people will spam you if they got these info, The main concern is how they got these info??
July 22, 2008 at 12:39 pm
It’s crying wolf because AS is not selling the information. Someone else took the list and is exploiting it. It’s just much better link bait to make it sound like AS resells it.
July 22, 2008 at 12:33 pm
A list of 1500 home addresses on current affiliate marketers who are active is quite valuable, for a company in the affiliate business. If I owned such a business, i’d pay handsomely… and I’m sure many people have.
July 22, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Ah, I was wondering how he paid the bills… Wonder what other lists he and the clan sells?
July 22, 2008 at 12:19 pm
This is the reason why I always use a PO Box address when signing up for anything. Maybe it should have been an opt-in, not an opt-out.
July 22, 2008 at 11:58 am
I guess we all have to be more careful from now on.
July 22, 2008 at 11:56 am
Wow, the monthly post on Shawn Collins came early this time. I checked it out, he doesn’t sell it, you can opt out which is standard thanks to DoubleClick, it’s given to the exhibitors at the show, which is common in other industry conferences (I’ve seen it in CRM, Adserving), some guy on DP took the list and is selling it himself. So instead of rallying to get the guy that is exploiting the list for his own benefit, this somehow gets turned around into Collins is selling private information. Just out of curiosity, did anyone here talk to Shawn before posting, or was this put together from second hand sources and comments made on a forum? He’s very easy to contact via twitter.
July 22, 2008 at 11:36 am
That sucks, they sell private information for what for?
July 22, 2008 at 11:33 am
I have organized a few conferences for the company that I work for. Nothing large. 3- 5 day events for 200-300 people. Never would we give anyone their information. The only way someone was able to get their information was if someone bought something. We didn’t even let the speakers give out their contact information.
July 22, 2008 at 11:13 am
sounds like it would be a big deal and shady, but it depends on who is looking at it. i think its standard in some industries, but it should be more prominently placed for users to opt it (if it already isn’t).
July 22, 2008 at 11:11 am
This is really shocking! How can such a thing be a standard. Its clear privacy issue!
July 22, 2008 at 11:10 am
It’s fairly common to do this IF it’s a membership organization. For example, if it’s an annual conference for members of a particular organization where you have to apply, then almost everyone gets the list of attendees and (work) addresses.
July 22, 2008 at 11:09 am
That is standard procedure in many other industries. I always register with my PO Box address if at all possible.
July 22, 2008 at 10:56 am
Top affiliates beware!!!
July 22, 2008 at 10:48 am
Wow, I don’t agree that this is a good practice at all…sharing information always get people upset…I was on the list and have received a significant increase of telemarkers trying to sell me stuff…this explains the recent increase in phone calls
July 22, 2008 at 10:46 am
He’s not the only one. I registered for an event recently but was unable to attend at the last minute. The following week my phone and email were going nuts from vendors saying, “thanks for stopping by we really enjoyed visiting with you, we’re just following up on our conversation…” Hilarity ensued when I told them I didn’t even attend…
July 22, 2008 at 10:24 am
why is it cry wolf if its the truth? that makes no sense to me.
July 22, 2008 at 10:15 am
That really is sneaky.
July 22, 2008 at 10:05 am
Jeremy,
That doesn’t surprise me. After I went to the Miami show I got SPAMMED for months by all sorts of charachters claiming I gave them my card, met them at the show, in a bar etc. And I am sure I didn’t meet these people or give them my card.
July 22, 2008 at 10:04 am
Thats not cool, it would be a good idea to find out how much the newbie bought the list for and who sold it too them….
If someone without the authority from within the group is distributing the list then the group itself has some explaining to do as too there lack of data safe guards which of course can be used to undermine there security… Then maybe they will start taking some of this seriously.
Regardless is this was me I would be absolutely pissed off.
July 22, 2008 at 10:00 am
Guys it is very standard. Ad Tech does this as do many other conferences, I have exhibited at many. Also, its not your “home address” and “personal details”, its your business address and business information. For some that maybe the same, but its like you business card info. The main reason is so you can send post cards or marketing to attendees so they can visit your booth, etc. Also, the opt out is pretty clear on both the Ad Tech and Affiliate Summit.
IMO your making a big to do about nothing.
July 22, 2008 at 9:31 am
While I’m also in the ‘affiliate game’, isn’t it at least a little bit ironic that affiliates had their information sold, while in the same day leading hundreds of web surfers to companies that collect information just like it.
July 22, 2008 at 9:27 am
That’s nuts. I wouldn’t want my home address on some selling list. I get enough crap mail as is.
July 22, 2008 at 9:26 am
While I don’t think its right to be selling data in this way it is sadly very common and big business these days. I was chatting to the CEO of a small affiliate marketing company a while back and when I told him what I do for a living the first thing he asked was if we had any databases of names and email that we wanted to sell.
July 22, 2008 at 9:09 am
WOW that wasn’t standard for any other industry I was in either. I bet the opt out box is really fine print and hard to find too. Underhanded and sneaky in an industry riddled with spammers already. And then for that contact info to be sold – honestly if this isn’t illegal it should be.
Shawn – Raise yuor standards, man! If visitors want to leave contact info with a vendor, we’ll give them a biz card.
July 22, 2008 at 9:00 am
now this is a good way to go after Shawn.
July 22, 2008 at 8:55 am
I’m not saying that the practice of selling the attendee information is a Good Thing, but I can’t say that I’m the least bit surprised, especially at an affiliate conference. Nowadays, I just presume that any information I put into a form is getting sold to somebody.
July 22, 2008 at 8:54 am
I’ve been attending technology trade shows for 25 years. It is extremely common for exhibitors and sponsors to get the contact information of all the attendees.
It doesn’t always happen, but it is a common thing.
Often, those lists are also rented or sold for use in advertising.
July 22, 2008 at 8:53 am
thats a good fined shoe !
July 22, 2008 at 8:36 am
That is bad press and just not good business. His trust factor just went to below zero on the 1 to 10 scale
July 22, 2008 at 8:31 am
If there’s a box I suppose it’s not sneaky, but I don’t think it’s standard practice. If it were, the box should be made much more prominent, most people don’t want their information out in the wild like that.
someone made a mistake… a big ugly egg on my face mistake
July 22, 2008 at 8:24 am
And why is AdTech not on your list? *Most* conferences *do* give attendee information to exhibitors, much more information than Affiliate Summit gives out. It isn’t sold to anyone that wants it, it is a benefit of being an exhibitor or sponsor. Seems you like to cry wolf lately Jeremy, what’s up with that?
July 22, 2008 at 8:04 am
This would explain some of the salespitchy emails I’ve been getting recently.
July 22, 2008 at 8:02 am
I think it’s ridiculous. I hate when people sell my information for a quick buck. But, I guess if it’s legal and you’re greedy enough, it makes sense to do it. I just find it frustrating that he said, “but everyone does it.” That’s the irritating part.
July 22, 2008 at 7:58 am
Thanks for the heads up
July 22, 2008 at 7:48 am
Perhaps not in the world of SEO conferences, but having been an exhibitor at dozens of IT conferences I can tell you that it is not uncommon to get a list of attendees as part of your exihibit package. The $10K you’re ponying up for a 10×10 booth is for more than just space rental.
July 22, 2008 at 7:46 am
I’ve been to several Ad-Tech shows as an exhibitor and the conference provides exhibitors with the names and postal addresses of all attendees, similar to what Shawn is doing.
July 22, 2008 at 7:37 am
That is harsh. Very bad publicity, and is nowhere near the norm.
Can I ask is this a new gravatar plugin you got going?
July 22, 2008 at 7:34 am
Shortly after Affiliate Summit in February I started getting subscription offers in the mail from Wired magazine. I’ve never been a subscriber and I figured they probably got my info from some conference I attended. Think Affiliate Summit sold my info to Wired?
July 22, 2008 at 7:31 am
but shawn says “The attendee files have not been sold to anybody.”
So i think it is available only to participants !!
July 22, 2008 at 7:24 am
Only fill in the fields that are absolutely necessary, and this relates to online forms too! Mailing lists like thisare worth gold, and if they get into the wrong hands online matters can become very personal and intimate (not in a nice way) too. Remember that no matter how tight “security” supposedly is, your information will be lying around in an office (or floating around on a hard drive) somewhere, where somebody with less than noble intentions might be able to access it. This serves as a sterling example, Jeremy
July 22, 2008 at 7:18 am
That is just wrong!
July 22, 2008 at 7:15 am
Oh Snap! However I am surprised that you didn’t use your business address.
July 22, 2008 at 7:08 am
Having built software for events/conferences for 4 years I can tell you that a lot of these companies do in fact sell their delegate lists back to exhibitors and especially to sponsors. It is however almost always spelled out at the bottom of a registration form, online or otherwise, right before the submit / signature area.
I should note that I was never involved in conferences where the attendees were largely marketers. My company dealt mostly in pharmaceuticals and health care conferences/events/trade shows.
July 22, 2008 at 6:55 am
yet another reason to invest in P.O. boxes
July 22, 2008 at 6:54 am
I’ve only visited trade shows in Europe and every time I have received marketing material after the show (email and post)…
July 22, 2008 at 6:39 am
That ’s just screwed up. The provision of that data to the public is dangerous – they couldn’t/can’t use the defense that it was sold to companies, this is the internet we’re talking about, and hell; that post is the perfect example.
Attending that conference are tons of people with even more fans. Stalkers alert!
July 22, 2008 at 6:35 am
Wow, that’s very underhanded tactics in anyones book. That list must be worth a small fortune though.
July 22, 2008 at 6:25 am
I agree with the fact that home address should not be revealed. But what if your business address is also your home address. I attend several trade shows each year in the trucking industry. The largest trucking trade show is the Mid America Truck Show in Louisville KY where they have over 100,000 people attend……. on the shows website there is an area where you can search for exhibitors and sure enough when you enter your search info and your list comes up it has the businesses physical address as well as the web address. While many business addresses are separate from home address there are those few that are the same as home.
While they don’t “sell” the address info, it is easily available on the web. There are many other industries, especially larger ones that do this on a regular basis.
July 22, 2008 at 6:23 am
What a sneaky bastard… but a list of 1500 affiliates may be pretty valuable to some people….
July 22, 2008 at 6:20 am
Reading between the lines here, your last comment was this:-
Not sure about US law, but UK law NEEDS at least an opt-out box.
Going on what Shaun said:-
And what you said about the list
Does that mean that – if there were 1500 people who attended the summit, all 1500 allowed their information shared? It must’ve been a pretty small box, as it’s usually the first thing I look for!
Has anybody got a copy of the form to see?