Software company Nuance, which owns Scansoft, has been selling my email address to spammers and other companies, even though I have contacted them numerous times and asked them to stop. I know they've been part of my spam problem - in fact they've added to it by selling my address to lots of places - because I've done a secret and sneaky trick to track companies that do this. OK, it's not so secret or sneaky but it sounded really good, didn't it? Details below...
As for Nuance, I've sent many messages to their "privacy" officer, but I've never gotten a response from them and they continue to do sell my information. I think something should be done about companies that do this sort of smarmy thing - especially when their "privacy" policy expressly states that they will do nothing with my information. In part, it reads:
Nuance Communications, Inc. ("Nuance") is dedicated to making your online experience as interesting and enjoyable as possible. We truly appreciate your presence on our site and at all times understand that you are our guest and should be treated accordingly. To ensure this, we have listed the components of our Privacy Policy below.
Use of Personal Information
Nuance Communications, Inc. abided by the Privacy Principles of the Safe Harbor Program as administered by the USA Department of Commerce. Details of these principles may be found at: www.export.gov/SafeHarbor.
Any information you submit through Nuance's web sites will be held in the strictest confidence. In no way will your personal information ever be used without your consent. To ensure this, all forms on our web sites that send information to a database that may be used in the future, e.g. mailing lists, registration, etc., have check boxes where you specify whether or not you would like to receive information from us in the future. Forms used just to send email, post messages, etc., do not include the option, but will never be used to send information. Be assured that we do not sell our name and address lists. If you choose to receive information from us, each message will also include instructions on how to "unsubscribe" from future mailings should you wish to cancel.
The only information we automatically collect is that related to the use of our web site. This information is anonymous and is gathered through our servers' log files. These log files record generic information, such as the number of visits our web site receives, the types of browsers used and the number of files downloaded, but never personal information. This log file information allows us to create better content aimed at our viewer's preferences.
Nuance does not collect information that personally identifies individuals except when individuals provide such specific information on a voluntary basis. There may be occasions where specific personal information is requested before an individual can enter certain sections of Nuance's site or for participation in a certain program. For example, registration may be required to participate in an online forum or contest. This kind of registration helps us to ensure that content standards are rigorously upheld or that contact can be made with prize winners. In all such cases, Nuance will collect only information that is voluntarily provided by the user and undertakes that such information will be kept strictly confidential. Any such individual information provided to Nuance will not be sold or made available to a third party. Nuance does reserve the right, however, to perform statistical analyses from the information you provide so as to improve our products or to gather marketing information. Only aggregated data from these analyses, not individual data, will be used for this purpose.
Contact us
Nuance knows that your privacy is very important to you. We welcome questions and comments regarding this policy, so feel free to contact us at privacy@nuance.com. Because technologies on the Internet change so quickly, Nuance reserves the right to modify its Privacy Statement from time to time. More legal information can be found in Nuance's Legal notices Statement.
All that being said, they have continued to sell my address, and have never responded to any email I've sent to the privacy officer.
Nuance is a company that you should watch out for. If they have no problem doing it to me they'll certainly have no problem in helping to spam you.
The Sneaky Tracking Thing I Do
So how do I know that Nuance is doing this? Very simple. I keep track of every website I register at using its own unique email address - so I can track stuff like this - and it's pretty simple and painless to do. (And no, I don't keep massive lists of every place I sign up for - that would be creepy and weird, if you ask me.)And, how, you ask, do I track these guys with a unique email address in a simple way? It goes a little something like this: I know who/what company is spamming me and where they got my email address from, because each address that I use to register on a website is unique and identifiable. For Scansoft (a division of Nuance), I originally registered some software that came with my old PC on their website, using an address similar to this:
scansoft@timsfakedomain
And this must be lucrative for Scansoft/Nuance, since they are selling me to some sort-of-high-end type companies, such as Volkswagen of America and Macy's, of all places. When Scansoft/Nuance sells my information, and it's used to send me "legitmate" emails from legitimate companies, the emails come addressed to me at scansoft@timsfakedomain.
Setting Up Your Own Secret Sneaky Email Tracking
To get this tracking system up and running, I simply set up a domain (let's say I used timsfakedomain.com, then I set up a "slush" email account under that domain that forwards all email that comes into it - no matter who the front end of the email is addressed to - to my actual, real email account. This is done by setting my new domain to send any mail onward, using the universal symbol for "all" - an asterisk.
It looks something like this:
Forward "*@timsfakedomain" to "timsrealemail@timsrealdomain".
(You'll notice that I'm not listing real domains or email addresses here, because of... well, you guessed it, spambots and other things that might try to scrape an email address from this posting.)
Thus, when I get an email from, oh say, Volkswagen of America but it's addressed to scansoft@timsfakedomain, I know exactly where it was sold/rented/stolen/given away from.
It's pretty simple, once you set it up, and then it's kind of fun to see who spams you.
Now, if only I could get Nuance to actual follow their privacy policy - or even acknowledge my complaints... and Volkswagen and Macy's to stop buying email lists from companies like this, then I'd be a little lighter in the spam inbox.
Does anyone out there have any other ways for tracking this stuff? Or similar experiences?
