By now, you’ve probably heard about those whole-body scanners that are being testing in some airports across the country. The scanners take a front-and-back image of travelers and penetrate through clothing to look for suspicious items, such as weapons and other contraband. The scanners are quick (15-30 seconds), they appear to be accurate, and they eliminate the need for a physical pat-down from TSA agents when travelers are taken aside for more screening.

But there’s an outcry that the scanners violate the privacy of those traveling through airports, and the complaints are getting louder. The image at right is of a woman scanned with backscatter technology; images such as this one create a fear that TSA agents sees passengers naked with this technology. The TSA counters these fears by noting that the current technology in use is called “millimeter wave” technology, and that the images produced are fuzzier and less defined than backscatter. But still, the can of worms was opened with photos like this, and now the debate rages.

Right now, six airports nationwide use the scanners in place of traditional metal detectors, while another 12 airports use them as a secondary screening techniques (for example, if someone repeatedly sets off the metal detector or is randomly selected for closer scrutiny). Advocates of the scanners note that almost everyone chosen for a pat-down will select the scanner over a TSA agent’s physical touch, and the scanners take just a fraction of the 2-4 minutes needed for a pat-down. So why the resistance to the technique?

CNN reports today that privacy advocates call the whole-body scanners an invasion of personal rights. The argument is that the TSA goes too far by essentially seeing the airport travelers naked (privacy advocates claim that any “blurriness” in images doesn’t address the underlying issue), and while the computers that manage the system don’t currently store data, there’s nothing to prevent the TSA from storing images or other information in the future. Those opposing the current system want full disclosure to passengers about what’s going on, legal wording in place to protect those scanned, and safeguards in effect to keep the TSA from storing the data or changing the technology later without telling anyone. A national campaign against whole-body scanning is launching now in the hopes of going viral and getting attention for the cause.

Up until recently, the efforts of privacy advocates seemed to be ineffective. Budget Travel’s blog looked into whole-body scanning last month, noting that, while the scanners are available in just a handful of airports so far, the TSA intends to implement them in place of metal detectors in all airports in the future. But there’s a hiccup in the TSA’s plans: Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced a bill late last month to eradicate the whole-body scanners from airports. As quoted by Emergent Chaos, Chaffetz called the scanners “unnecessary to securing an airplane” and noted that there must be a balance between safety and privacy. The ACLU agrees, saying that a choice between being “groped or stripped” is not a fair choice and that “people shouldn’t be humiliated by their government” for security’s sake. Even leaving aside the privacy arguments, the financial side must be considered: the scanning machines cost $170,000 each, making the investment substantial should they be used across all airports in the U.S.

So what do you think? Are whole-body scanners necessary to protect our security in the air, or are they an unnecessary invasion of privacy? Let us know your views in the comments. And don’t forget to protect your own privacy by signing up for The Privacy Council’s List Removal Service! You’ll be removed from the major mailing lists, and you’ll get less junk mail and more peace of mind.

Spammers are industrious creatures. They know how to capitalize on an opportunity, and they move quickly. Since President Barack Obama took office a little more than a month ago, I’ve begun to receive emails allegedly from Obama himself, promising me a share of a variety of stimulus packages and government handouts. I doubt very much that President Obama has turned to spam for his information distribution, but you never know.

Recently, the President’s office implemented the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, which is designed to allow 7 to 9 million families to refinance or modify their home loans, thus avoiding foreclosure. Reuters reports that one in eight American households are late on payments or in foreclosure, so this aid could not come at a better time. Right on cue, though, the bailout-themed spam returned to my inbox, and I received several versions of the same email, below (sent from “President Obama,” subject line: “I have Signed the Largest Stimulus Package & there is $15 Billion available 4 u Today! see how”):

The text reads as follows:

“Do you watch Television, Read the Newspapers? If so, You would know that our Government Passed a $787 Billion Dollar “Stimulus” Plan. So, what does this mean to you right now? Probably NOTHING! That’s right, unless you are on Social Security whereby Our Government will be mailing a whopping $250 1 time check To those On Social Security, you will have to Dig Deep to see where YOU will benefit From this New Stimulus Plan!

“Now Don’t Trust Us to do your reading, do it yourself, But within the New Stimulus Plan Is an Opportunity to Get Your Hands A Piece of $2 Billion Dollars! All you have to do is know how to get your Piece of this $2 Billion Dollars That According to the Stimulus Plan WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE STARTING TODAY MARCH 4, 2009!

“So this is a First Come First Serve Type of Deal our Very Own Government Has Made!

“Our Question to you is as follows: Would You like to learn how to get a piece of this $15 Billion Dollars in as little as 1 Week? If YES, Use your common sense, you have nothing to lose only to gain by pressing below for FREE!

“Press here if You Want Guaranteed Free Money From The US Government in as little as 12 DAYS!”

Impressive, no? The random capitalization and poor grammar and punctuation really sell this gem.

Once you get into this email, you discover that it’s not actually FROM the government, despite the alleged source of President Obama (I doubt that the president uses “text talk” like “4 u” when he means “for you,” anyway). Also, you notice that the numbers are a little off… One line suggests a $2 Billion handout, another a $15 Billion stimulus. One paragraph says “as little as one week,” but the final line says “as little as 12 days.” Clearly, numbers are not the spammer’s strong suit.

You might also note that, while timed to go out during the week that the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan is in the spotlight, the email doesn’t actually address this plan at all. Rather, it refers to the stimulus package that President Obama signed into law a few weeks ago. That package, designed to provide relief to millions of Americans through a variety of tax cuts, aid for states and other initiatives, does not involve handing out cash to those who ask for it. Even those who make the request via a spam email link.

I have received this email (or some version of it) a few times a day whenever a financial plan or bill is in the news. The really shameful thing about it is that many Americans truly are hurting right now, with the economy struggling and layoffs increasing. This spam plays on the fear and despair of the American in trouble. It’s worse than playing on the insecurities of men with ED (”Click here for cheep V1@gra”) or on the greed of those who want inexpensive luxury (”Designer handbags available at knockoff prices!”). For all these reasons, it’s an easy inductee into the Marketing Hall of Shame.

Want to reduce the amount of spam, junk mail and telemarketing calls you receive? Privacy Council’s list removal service is the answer. Sign up for Privacy Council today and see fewer emails from “President Obama” or any other spammers in your inbox. You’ll also be doing the environment a favor by saving a few trees’ worth of junk mail! Click here to get your name removed from the lists.

In these troubling financial times, when foreclosures and lagging home sales are covering the market in a pall of doom and gloom, it makes sense that consumers would be searching for an escape from the crisis. Thank goodness we have spammers who are willing to spread the word about loan modification, complete with hall of shame-worthy tactics!

This spam message enters the Hall of Shame for a few reasons. One, it’s blatantly trying to capitalize on the negativity of the current economic climate. The best spam draws on the opportunities that are available, after all, and this one certainly fits that bill. Many people are afraid of foreclosure, and playing to that fear is a powerful method to gain attention. The emotional manipulation begins with the title of the message itself: “Behind on House Payments? Don’t go into Foreclosure!” Gosh, maybe I AM behind on my payments! I fear foreclosure! And exclamation points make me excitable and nervous!

Two, it’s persistent. The spammers behind this message want to be certain that EVERYONE receives it, and that they receive it enough times for the message to sink in. Over the past three days, I received this message in my spam email box a total of 18 times. That’s some very determined spam! I guess I see their point, because you never know, I might have missed the first 17 emails that came through, so that 18th one was important.

Three, the message itself contains carefully-chosen imagery that further manipulates the reader’s emotions on a subconscious level. See the smiling, all-American family, posed in front of the home they hold so dear? See the combination of American flag and America itself, indicating patriotism and all the great things about this country? See the holiday artwork, evoking further feelings of family and home? And of course, see the scary threat of foreclosure in red and white, with the calm, rational solution in soothing blue? Every visual piece of this spam is calculated for maximum emotional impact. There’s no way your subconscious can avoid equating loan modification with mom, the flag and apple pie.

Last, it’s vague. How do you modify your loan and save your home? There’s no way to know for sure from this ad. What about the pull-down menus? They don’t actually work, it turns out. Is there any information at all that might explain how this loan modification thing works? Nope. You’re supposed to simply trust the emotional imagery and fear the potential consequences enough to click the ad and start the process. Simple enough!

Congratulations to the loan modification spammers for your persistence, timeliness, vagueness and emotional manipulation! It’s all earned you a spot in the Marketing Hall of Shame.

If you own a phone, even a work or cell phone, you’ve probably gotten this call. It can come from a variety of source numbers (often spoofed or otherwise masked), and it’s always an automated recording. It usually claims to be the “second and final” notice (even after multiple calls), and it warns the recipient that their car warranty is near expiration. Of course, it offers information on how to buy an extended warranty.

So other than the annoyance factor, why does this particular telemarketing call deserve to be in the Marketing Hall of Shame?

First, the call source disregards the national Do Not Call list. Any and every phone number out there can be one of targeted numbers, despite the fact that it’s illegal for telemarketers to bother people on the Do Not Call list. Of course, the spoofed numbers hide the real source of the calls, so disgruntled recipients of the call can’t call back and complain, or even report the number with any chance of the government catching the caller.

Second, the call is not targeted at people who actually have car warranties, or even people who actually have CARS. It’s a blanket telemarketing attempt, conducted nationwide, without regard for who the call recipients are. The “second and final” notice is a scare tactic that isn’t remotely accurate. Imagine the frustration of the public-transit riders out there who get calls about the expiring warranties on their nonexistent cars! These calls are so widespread and so annoying that they’ve generated articles on multiple websites and investigation from multiple state governments. That’s quite a broad scope for a telemarketing scam.

Third, the calls are repeated relentlessly. Some people on consumer complaint websites comment that they’ve received this call dozens of times, often in the same day. I’ve personally received this call on my cell phone about once a week for the past few months.

Fourth, if the recipient stays on the line and speaks to a live person in an effort to clear up the apparent confusion, their requests to be removed from the call list tend to be ignored. Again, many people on consumer complaint sites say that they’ve asked to stop receiving the calls, but despite assurances that they will be removed from the calling lists, the calls continued.

Fifth, for those who actually purchased the extended warranty offered in the calls, the coverage turned out to be less than ideal. The telemarketers don’t represent the car manufacturers, and getting reimbursed for car repairs can be difficult, according to the Iowa Attorney General’s office (as quoted in the New York Times).

Last, for some of these telemarketing calls, there’s more than just annoyance at stake. Some of these car warranty calls are actually attempts to steal the identities and information of the call recipients. The callers use the same “final notice” scare tactics to trick people into giving up key personal information. So speaking to the callers can lead to more than just a useless car warranty; it can lead to a credit and identity nightmare.

What is being done to handle this particular telemarketing scourge? According to the New York Times, several state attorney generals are looking into the companies behind the calls in an effort to investigate legal wrongdoing (such as violations of the Do Not Call list) and whether the companies and warranties themselves are legitimate. Telling people that their warranties are near expiration might also be deceptive and misleading sales practices which justify legal action (this seems like a no-brainer, but the states must conduct their due diligence in looking into this case).

In the meantime, if you get a call that starts with “This is your second and final notice,” hang up. You might get more of them, and you might get annoyed by them, but you can do your part to fight back. Call your state’s attorney general office and complain. Go to the Do Not Call website and file a complaint. Make some noise, and the authorities will do what they can to make the calls stop.

To the companies behind the calls, nice job! You’ve become the first telemarketers in Privacy Council’s Marketing Hall of Shame.

Sources for this article: The New York Times, Caller Complaints, The Internet Patrol, Autoblog

Photo source: www.freedigitalphotos.net

I received this spam email a few days ago. The subject line caught me first: “Cleanse and Flush up to 20lbs from your colon!” The rest of the email reads like this:

Lose Weight With Your Mate! – Flush out up to 25 pounds – Remove Deadly Toxic Buildup – Relieve Constipation and Bloating – Best of all, you can try it FREE!* Get Your FREE Bottle and Colon Health Kit Today! http://z12.e-booksmarts.com/r/777/3448727/830.htm *Plus S&H Unsubscribe: http://z12.e-booksmarts.com/r/777/3448727/831.htm ColonMed700 3600 Oceanview, Glendale CA 91208

Here are the things that really jump out at me from this spam message:

1. Of course, it was unsolicited, which is what makes it spam. But it’s so far from anything I might have wanted to know about that it’s not even remotely linked to my buying preferences and interests. I can’t imagine a moment in which I might want to read about colon cleaners in my email, and yet, here it is.

2. “Lose weight with your mate” – What does this have to do with anything? Does my mate have to be a part of this cleansing process? What if I’m mate-free? This phrase is probably there for the rhyming catchiness and for the fact that everyone likes to do things with their mates (although hawking a colon-cleaning product as a bonding benefit for couples might not work the way they expect).

3. “Flush out up to 25 pounds” – I get the charming “flush” reference, but 25 pounds?? I suspect that my entire intestinal weight is less than that, let alone what’s in my system. So now I have a healthy fear of this product, since I’m pretty sure most of my internal organs would have to be removed in order to reach that touted 25-pound weight loss. Truth in advertising? I certainly hope not.

4. “Remove deadly toxic buildup” – There are deadly toxins building up in my body?? Maybe so, but I doubt a laxative will fix that. The use of “deadly,” however, is a classic scare tactic to motivate buyers. Too bad the spammers probably lost most readers before they even reached that line, thanks to number 5…

5. The text above is the entire contents of the spam message. It has no graphics, no fonts, no testimonials, and no more information about the product. It’s so small and plain that it breaks almost every rule of visual marketing. As a means of sucking people in, this falls very short. After all, even if I hadn’t been in the market for a colon cleaner, a snazzy message with bright colors and happy customers might have intrigued me. In theory, anyway.

6. FREE – They mention “free” twice, in big letters. Really, they claim, it’s free! Except for that tiny asterisk that notes the added, undisclosed cost of shipping and handling. They also say you can “try it” free, not just get it free; in most cases, “try it free” means “you get a short trial period until we start charging your credit card for the astronomical recurring costs of this product,” at which point you end up frustrated and trying to cancel the charges before they add up. In just about every case, “FREE” isn’t free at all, but spammers love to use it.

7. The date – What you can’t see in the text alone is that the email was date-stamped on 1/18/2037. Since that’s in the future, the email will stay on the top of the inbox as long as the user doesn’t delete it, keeping the lovely colon-cleansing ad front and center for as long as possible. Lots of spammers mess with the dates on emails in order to manipulate where they end up in the inbox. Some take the opposite tactic and put a much older date on the email, making the new message appear at the bottom of the list so that the user has to hunt for it in order to delete it.

8. The small bit of good news: The spam does include an unsubscribe link and an address for the company, and while either or both of those might be bogus, it’s a nice touch that almost makes it appear that the marketing company would rather not send you colon cleaning ads if you don’t want them.

So for this spam ad’s unsolicited nature, random content, dishonest advertising, manipulation of the calendar and unappealing design, it officially becomes part of the Marketing Hall of Shame! Congratulations! Sort of.

The scary thing about this email is not that someone was able to find my address and send it to me (unsolicited albeit), but rather that people must be responding to it….