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mopariac · 08-07-2013, 09:26 AM

So when has Airforums started giving our E-mail address out to advertisers? I just received an e-mail from Airstream Inc. Where is the line on how far this will go? Just a thought...

**jcanavera** · 08-07-2013, 09:29 AM

Airforums does not sell email addresses. If Airstream got your email address, it was from some other source.

Jack

mopariac · 08-07-2013, 09:39 AM

Sounds like you have an attitude...What is up with that? I only use this email with Airforums and nowhere else. It just happens Airstream guessed I was an airstream owner. They got it from no other source. How did you become a moderator if you spit out a response without caring how it is worded? Like maybe...
Airforums has a privacy policy and security measures that makes it impossible for anyone to receive a list of e-mails from our site. It could be possible that your computer has a malware that collects data from web cookies in order to retrieve your browsing history....

I think someone aught to moderate the moderator!! Niceness goes a long ways....So have a nice day.

Tharon

dznf0g · 08-07-2013, 09:49 AM

Um, I think when I called AS to give them my change of ownership info, they asked for my email address....

andreasduess · 08-07-2013, 09:53 AM

I use a browser plugin called MaskMe when signing up for forums. It creates a disposable forwarding email address. If ever I start receiving spam from that address I retire it.

HowieE · 08-07-2013, 10:14 AM

Unfortunately no matter what the stated intent towards privacy might be by a given origination there are TOO many individuals within the origination that have access to information you hold private.

If the US Government can't secure information you can't expect a volunteer origination to do it.

I use a gmail address for those that ask for my e mail address an don't want to continue a connection with them.

Unfortunately I went into a Verizon store and they stole my complete contact list.

Some may choose to sell information for gain some may choose to give it away for social reasons. In either case we are at risk.

SteveSueMac · 08-07-2013, 10:26 AM

Sorry but the whole tone here sounds unreasonably confrontational to my ears (your mileage may vary and I may be completely wrong on that interpretation).

Privacy is a valid concern. You have an assumption and came to a conclusion which may or may not be accurate. You can test that assumption in a number of collegial, collaborative and cordial ways. You sort of entered the room with a baseball bat in hand :-o

I gave my email to Airstream when I purchased. You may not have. As you would know better than I would (based on your profession listed in your profile) there are an unlimited number of ways for email addresses to be gathered and used with/without our permission.

The moderators say our email addresses here are not shared outside of this forum. I am comfortable with that and sorry you're not. I suppose it's possible that AS employees troll forums like this and find emails on their own, maybe you "liked" something on Facebook that captured your email address that was eventually sold to AS, maybe you were hacked - hard to say. But your assumption on the sharing of emails out of the forum is incorrect.

In addition to the suggestions I've made here, what other possible answers to your question can you see as possibilities to explore? I'd welcome your thoughts on email protection - I think we're all over exposed to some extent.

Best,
Steve

Protagonist · 08-07-2013, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mopariac

Sounds like you have an attitude

Pot, meet kettle. A concise, succinct answer by the moderator is a lot less of an indicator of attitude than a diatribe in response.

Quote:

I only use this email with Airforums and nowhere else.

You created the e-mail address just to sign up for the account, and no one in your family ever used it since, for anything? And until now the only mail you've ever received at that address are the "instant notifications" about updates to subscribed threads?

Personally, regardless of who gave it to them, I doubt I'd get upset over Airstream having my e-mail address, since I'm an Airstream owner. On the other hand, if it was Winnebago sending things to my e-mail address…

**Janet H** · 08-07-2013, 10:41 AM

OK folks - let's move on here. There are all sorts of ways to get e-mail addresses and you never really can know who may have forwarded or shared something.

AIR makes every effort to maintain member privacy and as noted we don't sell, lease share or publish member e-mail addresses. If you've ever done business with someone or e-mailed someone, you can't really be certain what they've done with your info. Stay safe.

rideair · 08-07-2013, 11:10 AM

My guess they have an agreement with either the NSA, CIA or FBI.

Enjoy,

Skater · 08-07-2013, 11:22 AM

I had to stop and think when I got the first message from them, then I remembered I'd ordered some things from Airstream online several years ago (well before I bought my first camper) and certainly gave my address to them then.

If Airstream is the only place that has your special email address, then consider yourself lucky. You should see the sheer amount of junk mail I get on all of my accounts. Hundreds of messages per day, easily.

**jcanavera** · 08-07-2013, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mopariac

Sounds like you have an attitude...What is up with that? I only use this email with Airforums and nowhere else. It just happens Airstream guessed I was an airstream owner. They got it from no other source. How did you become a moderator if you spit out a response without caring how it is worded? Like maybe...
Airforums has a privacy policy and security measures that makes it impossible for anyone to receive a list of e-mails from our site. It could be possible that your computer has a malware that collects data from web cookies in order to retrieve your browsing history....

I think someone aught to moderate the moderator!! Niceness goes a long ways....So have a nice day.

Tharon

Tharon, you posted a very simple question and I responded in kind. I try not to overwhelm folks without understanding their level of expertise. I figured you would be the better to look for other avenues after I gave you my response and would ask for further assistance if necessary. That's what this format was designed to do. Start simple and build from there.

The moderators on this forum come from many backgrounds and have various levels of expertise. My background is IT and I could have filled out pages of methods in which email addresses are mined, or in some cases deduced by activities that you and I engage in on the Internet. I felt that I would give you a simple answer and if you wanted further discussion, you would respond in kind. You already have demonstrated that you have some background so obviously my simple response did seem to be adequate for the question you asked. Sorry I did not fulfill your expectations.

Jack

Gene · 08-07-2013, 12:39 PM

I think it is becoming normal to be paranoid about privacy since so many organizations collect everything they can, hide that fact from us, and the government is not only checking into phone calls and e-mails, but the post office is engaged in some of that too. I gather from hints in the Snowden news, there is a lot more they are doing, and I think it is a reasonable assumption it is a lot worse than anything we have found out so far.

Since the government has consistently lied to us, and we don't know the full extent of what they are doing, why wouldn't people be on edge? That is not a good excuse for nastiness, but it does help explain it to me.

When you get those affinity cards at the supermarket, they are collecting lots of info from you. When Safeway started it, they asked for social security numbers and people gave them out! Now they tell you that you'll get extra pennies off gas if you go online and register—then they have your e-mail address to match with all the stuff they already know about you.

It is hard to exist without using the internet to buy stuff and keep connected. Our locations can be traced through cell phones and data plans. Computers scan all this data and figure out our incomes, our politics, where we go and who we know.

The west was partly populated by people who had good reason to disappear. You didn't need a driver's license to ride a horse and no one had a phone. Now there is nowhere to start over if you don't act like a 40-year-old boring person. If you post dumb photos of yourself online when in college, it can haunt you for years (or if you're in Congress, it also has ramifications). If you send a nasty e-mail to the government about something they are doing, it may be online forever. With so much behavior now criminalized and easy to find out, you have to pretend you are normal.

Everything we post on this Forum is available to anyone with a computer. Airstream has my e-mail address because I've bought things online and I've corresponded with some of the executives. We don't know if the Forum has been hacked for members info and they might not know either. If they say it is impossible, they are wrong. Lists of e-mail addresses are available for a price along with social security numbers and credit card numbers. I do have more than one e-mail address, and am retiring the one I have used for a decade, so my spam numbers will drop until friends' address books are raided. However, I do not want to use many addresses because it is too confusing—I already have too many passwords and user names to remember any of it. I typed the list on the computer and saved it with an innocuous name, but can't remember it (I know that's dumb) and printed one copy so I can put it with the computer (I'm not quite that dumb‚ I keep it separately). And if I have to rediscover the password and the website asks me a question, sometimes I have forgotten the answer I gave them.

The cat is out of the bag and I don't know how we put it back in. If you thought someone was watching you, you used to be paranoid, now you are sane.

Gene

m.hony · 08-07-2013, 12:49 PM

I was actually happy to receive the Airstream newsletter today.
I guess it lightens the work day to read about the Classic Limited, or the guy who sold his trailer and after his wife died bought his own trailer back, or pink flamingoes...

SeeMore · 08-07-2013, 12:55 PM

Gene - you haven't listed half of it yet! Soon the genealogists will have linked you to everyone else and very soon your DNA will be linked as well. Anonymity is no more; it is only an illusion we crave.

ROBERTSUNRUS · 08-07-2013, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m.hony

I was actually happy to receive the Airstream newsletter today.
I guess it lightens the work day to read about the Classic Limited, or the guy who sold his trailer and after his wife died bought his own trailer back, or pink flamingoes...

Hi, I was glad to get it too; Could have been the Canadian Pharmacy instead. Oh wait, I get those too. Maybe when I went to Alaska, through Canada, the Border Guards stole my E-mail address?

xrvr · 08-07-2013, 03:35 PM

Been a member for years and have had my runins with the mods but, they have always acted with consistency and integrity. If the owner of this forum and the mods say no addresses were sold, I believe them. Did you email a friend from the forums or pm someone? How about the WBCCI site, been on there and used your email? Just a few thoughts, jim

Hittenstiehl · 08-07-2013, 04:00 PM

After 118 posts and 12 threads maybe there was a pm in there somewhere that showed your e mail. Also please check your settings on you profile page. Good luck.

Frank's Trailer Works · 08-07-2013, 04:04 PM

I strongly suggest an apology be made to the moderator accused of having an attitude. He was far from rude or confrontational at all.
I love getting emails from Airstream. I own more than one and am very proud of it.

overlander63 · 08-07-2013, 04:58 PM

I just ran a Google search on your user id, and got back your full name, address, phone number, other forums you belong to, other social groups you belong to, Twitter account, Ebay account, etc, etc, etc.
If some guy with nothing more than an iPad and a search engine can find out all that about you in less than 5 minutes, how tough do you think it would be for somebody that really wants your email address?

And I'll second the suggestion for an apology to the moderator you insulted.