Contact Data Mining and Farming
Contact forms often simply relay contact requests to an email recipient, not storing the data in any usable form in a database. This is frequently an issue where the owner (or less informed or capable designer) believes it to be an expensive undertaking. Today, there are many inexpensive or free tools for collecting contact data from forms, making that data available for use in ways that only a few short years ago would have been costly beyond the reach of many small businesses.
But there are other uses for forms, and other ways to collect data as well. An obvious one would be a registration form, where visitors are required to register in order to access valued information on the site. This site uses a registration form to allow visitors to post information to the forums.
Every day new and creative ways are being devised to farm and mine contact data from the internet. Some constitute theft, or when used, SPAM, but many are legitimate and legal. These later are very useful to the owner of the site. Shopping cart records, contact forms, registration requirements, and other methods are only a few among the ones in use today.
Finding Mr. J. Q. Public... Finding Mr. J. Q. Public...
How do you go about collecting contact information from your website without alienating your visitors? What do you do with it once you have it? What are some concerns regarding privacy and sharing or selling lists? Where does the legal turn into the illicit?
This area of the site contains articles, notes, and links to other resources that will help you answer these questions. |
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Collecting Contact Data
