Privacy – Scientific Atlanta Responds

I just got an email from Scientific Atlanta. Earlier today, filling out a survey form for them revealed my email address for all to see!

The email is interesting for what it does and doesn’t say. SciAtl’s email says this was an ‘anomaly’. How non-human.

Revealing my email address, along with hundreds of others, wasn’t caused by an anomaly. It was an error, a goof, a screw up – your choice.

Though Scientific Atlanta has tried their best to characterize this as a computer error, I suspect it was a human error. Right now, I would feel better about Scientific Atlanta, if I felt there was more candor in their email… if they’d fess up.

Notice Regarding Scientific Atlanta’s HDTV Promotion

During the e-mail confirmation process for the Explorer eClub HDTV promotion, we experienced an anomaly that resulted in a very limited number of respondents seeing the user name, cable operator name and e-mail address of some of the other survey participants. We responded by shutting down the survey site, identifying the problem, correcting the issue, testing the solution and re-establishing access to the survey – all in less than 30 minutes.

We take our privacy policy very seriously and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We value our relationship with our Explorer eClub members and will continue to rely on your valuable input to help us to improve our products. Your name has been entered in the drawing for the HDTV, and we thank you for participating in our survey and selecting a Scientific Atlanta product for your home.

Sara Stutzenstein

Director of Public Relations

Scientific Atlanta, A Cisco Company

Zero Security Policy

I just received an email from Scientific Atlanta. They’re the ones who built my cable box/DVR… the one that isn’t nearly as good as TiVo.

Dear Explorer eClub member,

It’s no secret that HDTV is growing in popularity, and at Scientific Atlanta, we’re listening to what consumers want. Share with us what you know about HDTV. Take the survey here.

All eligible members who participate by November 27, 2006 will be entered to win an HD television.*

Thank you very much for sharing your experiences with us.

Obviously, they didn’t want to hear much from me, because after two questions I was finished. If I had an HDTV they probably would have wanted to know more.

What followed, however, amazed me. With the confirmation screen came a list of EVERYONE else who entered! When I refreshed the page, the list lengthened.

In this day and age of spams, scams and worse, you would expect companies to double check this stuff… wouldn’t you?

Blogger’s addendum – As I was finishing this entry, I went back to Scientific Atlanta’s site to see if the problem still existed. It looks like the survey’s been taken down, as I received a “Service Unavailable” message.