LaLa is on online music service.  LaLa allows you to be invisible — and unbothered — on their system except, it seems, when they decide to violate your privacy to ask you in email why you want to remain private on their service.


Here’s the email LaLa sent me two hours ago:

Hey David,

I work for Lala.com and was hoping you could answer a few questions for me.

We’re currently in the process of reevaluating our privacy policy on Lala, and noticed that you’ve set your profile to “private”.  Would you mind letting me know why you opted to set your profile to private?  Do you have concerns regarding privacy on Lala?  What privacy enhancements and settings would you like to see implemented on Lala?

Thanks for your time!

Lindsey Price

I’m not sure why Lindsey thinks my privacy concerns are her business, but here is the response I sent her:

It’s sort of odd, isn’t it Lindsey, that I set my account to private
and you’re now bothering me about that choice by breaking my want for
privacy?

Here’s why:

http://urbansemiotic.com/2008/10/01/blogging-the-bodily-fluids-stream/

db

Here’s Lindsey’s reply to my response:

Hey David,

My apologies.  My intention wasn’t to bother you, just hoping to learn a bit
more from our active user base.

Lindsey

To that, I say, “Oooof!” — and I am suddenly no longer a LaLa fan. 

If a company has a privacy policy, then they should adhere to it and leave alone the people that opt in to having their privacy respected. 

LaLa broke a covenant this afternoon and the cracks are glowing in the night.

6 Comments

  1. I agree david,the language is a bit too intrusive…the girl badly needs to learn “communication” – the only thing a service provider could ask is:
    “What privacy enhancements and settings would you like to see implemented on Lala?” and that’s it!
    You even took a few minutes to answer her, I would have dragged the e mail to junk folder right there.

  2. Katha —
    I’m with you all the way! If someone opts out of publicly sharing their junque online, don’t break that consumer wish by berating them in email. Ask the question online and invite answers.
    I was tempted to dump her inquiry as well, but I wanted to see how she would respond to my argument that her very question was a breaking of the covenant between consumer and company.
    Her reply back proved she didn’t catch the irony in her original inquiry.

  4. Ha, Nicola! You’re right! I was at first a bit offended, and then I found it more fascinating that they’d choose to harp on me — I’m one of their best customers!

  6. Exactly! I have esoteric tastes and wild music wants — they need me sharing my stuff to help them sell their back catalog — all you see on LaLa in the user streams is all the modern thug music. Totally boring. I haven’t made a purchase since I was emailed…

Comments are closed.