How Customer Support Messengers Violate Your Privacy

Richard Chu
3 replies
Privacy is something I've been thinking a lot about recently. People are starting to wake up to the fact that our privacy is being invaded by the products all around us. I think we can do a better job of pointing out privacy violations when they happen. I'm personally interested in the customer support space, especially with messengers like Intercom and Drift. However, these products are some of the worst privacy offenders on the Internet today. I wrote a bit about it here: https://letterbase.io/blog/how-customer-support-tools-violate-privacy They try to gather as much data as possible about you -- basically acting like advertising companies instead of customer support companies.

Replies

Wilson Bright
Thank you for sharing this in depth. I liked your article, and loved the information you discussed in it depth. Sadly, consumers are opting for large known service brands. I'm sure there are privacy-focused alternatives available in these areas. What are your thoughts on HelpScout? I found similar meta information collected in the survey platforms. There wasn't a clean platform available. So I started building one. Let me know your thoughts on it. https://blocksurvey.io
Richard Chu
@wilsonbright Thanks, I'm glad you found the article informative. I haven't done an in-depth look at Help Scout, but I may analyze them in a future article. BlockSurvey looks cool. I'm glad to see more privacy-focused companies getting started in existing privacy-invasive industries.
Wilson Bright
@richard_chu Thanks Richard! Will stay in touch. Letterbase looks interesting. Will give it a try this week.