A Party Political Broadcast on Behalf of the eReco Party

I am sure you haven’t really noticed but there is an election looming. Luckily our politicians are too busy running the country to start campaigning three months before the polls open, so there is every chance you may have forgotten all about it. But whilst Red Ed has been trying to weaponise the NHS the Green party and environmental issues have been rising slowly to the surface.

This is interesting. No really, it is. Personally I believe the new generation of voters, those that can be bothered to turn up at the polls of course, are more attuned to green issues. Indeed, one pundit I caught on the radio recently was talking about both UKip and the Green’s winning seats off the big boys as different issues resonate with the electorate.

Now Nigel Farage and I would agree about many things. I like a pint too, and until very recently I smoked, quite often whilst muttering darkly about some crackpot European problem. But I would not vote for his party. And having looked into the policies of the Green’s I am not sure they are any less exposed to fairly extreme views and lunatic members.

But that is not the point of course. The vast majority of the voting public do not read the manifesto’s or even look at the web sites. They just see good old Nige with a pint in his hand calling Cameron and Miliband names, or they hear about the Green Party and think that a protest vote in favour of the planet might not be a bad idea.

However, as I alluded to earlier, perhaps because the youngsters have been exposed to ‘green’ ideas in their formative years much more than their parents ever were, the electorate is slowly becoming more aware of environmental policy and therefore the major parties have to take heed.

Sustainability really ought to be on the agenda therefore. If I were advising the big three I would be telling them to avoid the crackpot issues and concentrate on things that resonate. Making our lives as sustainable as possible ought to be one of those statements that even Red Ed could swallow rather easier than a bacon sandwich.

It is certainly a question I will be asking on the doorstep. Will the right honourable twit commit to having a sustainability test on all government regulated or controlled activities? Let’s be a lot tougher on people who waste resources and help those who try to make things go further.

Self interest would force me to add some data security principles to my list, but I am not sure a man who once claimed for a duck house would understand my point. I will settle for a grownup, joined up policy on sustainability and a reasonable attitude to business.

My mantra there is educate not regulate, but I am not holding my breath on either issue.

Stop Decapitating the Good Guys Genghis

Don’t tell Nigel Farage but the EU might be about to do a good thing. They do that sometimes, just to lull us all into a false sense of security. In this instance, they are about to pass some new data marketing laws...possibly as soon as January but certainly within the next decade. You know how Brussels works right?

Data can be a bit dull to the uninitiated, until you stop and think about it. And changing marketing database’s from opt out to opt in is hardly Game of Thrones stuff, is it? Well, let me try to shine some light on the issue for you.

We get ‘junk’ mail, either through the good old post-box or via email, because we managed to let our name and address get on a list somewhere. You can do that in a bazillion ways...buy something and fail to tick the right box, take part in a survey, have a baby.

Yes, that’s right, have a baby. Every new mother gets a visit from the Bounty rep after giving birth, in the hospital (or at least they used to, I have not been involved in baby production for fifteen years so I am taking the allegedly option here, the data collection process may have changed). The nice Bounty lady delivers a load of free stuff, and takes your name and address...and the direct marketing assault can begin.

Clever, aren’t they? Most people will never have realised that Bounty made a lot of money from their list sales, but to any company selling products needed by new parents or new born babies they are quite literally a goldmine. And unless you specifically opt out, you get the marketing assault.

But what if you had to specifically opt in?

At the moment, by the time you are a proper grown up, in your thirties say, you will appear on literally hundreds of direct marketing lists. Some are well run, properly sold and you can get off them if you try hard, and if you sign up for telephone preference services or mail preference services, you should not be contacted by anyone following the laws. And some aren’t.

The Information Commissioner, Chris Graham, and his Info Hordes (I like to think of him rather like Genghis Khan) fine people who ignore this sort of stuff, but he doesn’t catch everyone by any means. I am on the aforementioned preference services and I still get the chance to buy Viagra most days of the week (although we all get much less junk email now because ISP’s are getting better at preventing the real dross).

Opt In will decimate every decent list, because despite popular rumour, turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. Given the option whether to receive marketing messages or not, most of us will choose not. Not that there are many decent lists to be honest, but that is a whole different subject.

And what will that leave us with?

Well, at the top end, and this is a fair bit of volume driven by Charities, banks, insurance companies and the like, direct marketing will reduce. There will simply be less data available. And at the bottom end, where scant regard for the rules is paid, not much will change at all. The regulators will hurt the good guys and the bad guys will carry on regardless.

Which is the trouble with all regulations, says he, trying to get back on topic. Genghis Graham brings his mighty scimitar down on the guilty...and rightly so...but those who fall foul of the regulations and get caught are almost always the big boys. In data breach terms that means the major businesses who own up, because most of the people who get fined for losing data have followed the rules and ‘fessed’ up to their own disaster.

Smaller, less high profile businesses who screw up keep quiet and hope for the best. Or they break the rules deliberately to save money and they take the chance. Regulations won’t stop that sort of behaviour. 

Deterrents reduce ‘crime’ they do not eradicate it.

My own personal passion regarding data is more about education. We should all understand what our personal information means to us, and that it has value. Right from the time when a kid gets their first mobile phone or laptop they need to be taught what is going to happen when they sign up for anything, buy anything or do anything. In business, we need to understand best practise and be helped to do the right thing (and understand what the right thing is and why it is right) rather than threatened with a fate worse than death if we screw up.

In data marketing terms, there will always be marketing lists, so there should be a legitimate way to build them, but the regulators must also find a way to go after the cowboys in the black hats, not the ones in grey and white. In date security terms, we have to make it easier for people to do the right things, both in terms of cost and in terms of access to a reputable service.

Either that or we keep on fining big businesses who make mistakes and let all the real chancers carry on getting away with it.

Bad News for Farage

Despite my admiration for and frequent impersonations of Victor Meldrew I am actually quite moderate in most things. Except football, don’t get me started...this blog is likely to discend into whining and moaning on those rare days when Arsenal lose.

So, back on topic, environmentally I am not exactly a tree hugger, but equally I will not go out of my way to harm our environment, and like to ‘do my bit’ as it were.

However, joining a recycling business has made me think rather more about what we do. My colleagues are quite passionate about it and when you come to think of it the idea of putting electrical equipment into landfill by the ton is quite abhorrent.

Having been one of the first AATF’s (Authorised, Approved Treatment Facility) for WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), eReco know a lot about this sort of stuff. We have a 0% landfill commitment and everything we suck into our warehouse is returned to a useful state one way or another. But what most laypeople may not know is that we actually try to remarket anything that is resalable.

80% of the environmental harm is done during the manufacture of an electrical device, so if you can keep it in use a bit longer that is a good thing environmentally. It may not be good enough for a state of the art business using modern software (which seems to need more memory than Clive Sinclair ever thought possible) but there are lots of charities and organisations who can make use of them and we have our own eBay shop, which is quite cool. At least, I think so. There again my son doubts my ability to judge whether things are cool anymore.

I don’t know about you, but my reference to the tree hugger’s cliché epitomises what always put me off being really green. This whole planet is full of species that do harm to it and man is no different, just a bit more organised, but we should still use our commonsense. The IT industry has done that as far as I can see. The manufacturers make just about everything recyclable and at the other end of the spectrum there are people like us trying to keep the ball in play before we break it all down and start all over again.

The WEEE regulations are a good example of EU laws doing some good. Nigel Farage will hate me for saying it but it represents good joined up thinking. It is one of those things that would be hard to do in isolation but Europe acting together has made a real difference.