ExposureBlog

A couple of months ago our local COMPUSA closed.  During the closing, the company offered a number of products at a reduced rate.  One of them was a gadget called a MIO Digiwalker 310–a hand-held GPS device.  After noting a sign near the gadget warning NO RETURNS ALL SALES FINAL! I bought it.  An hour later I found I could have paid a lot less on the Internet.  Two days later the battery began to fail.  So, I went to the website and found that the Mio was made in Taiwan and had no obvious numbers for U.S. repair sites.  I clicked on “repair” and discovered that I had to have the product registered first.  So I then went through the process.  Here’s where it got interesting.  Mio wanted a lot of information. . .date of birth, gender, highest degree awarded, marital status, and yearly income.  And you couldn’t opt out.  If you DIDN’T enter the info you simply couldn’t register their product.  So, I did what I always do in situations like this.  I entered information that was incorrect, but trackable.  In other words, if I ever get spammed by outfits that seem to know my incorrect birth date, etc. I’ll know it came from Mio.

Unfortunately, people who rely on gadgets like this are in a bind.  In order to get the bad ones repaired we have to go through the process of spilling our personal information.  So to combat this kind of intrusive behavior, I recommend a list of fake information that can be spam-tracked.  If you happen to learn that the company you provided the information used it against you, then you may want to consider your legal options.