Is online market research is spam ?

If you do not check a company before entering into a transaction, you could lose your money, time and credibility. Some widely used resources are the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) and the national fraud center (www.fraud.org) these days, you can easily find out more about a company using the internet in a few minutes. From a company's website, you can details about its ownership, how old the company really is and feedback from the company's customers.


You can find more detailed information about a company at http://tinyurl.com/gtb89

Is online market research is spam ?
The definition of spam is not just unwanted email. It is email that you did not ask to recieve, or that you have asked to not recieve yet it continues to come. Businesses are not allowed to send you email that you have not asked for, and even when you have asked for it, they are required to have an easy-to-find, working unsubscribe link or email address. And they have to comply with your request within a reasonable amount of time. Some companies allow themselves up to a week to stop the emails, but they're really supposed to get it done within a couple of days, I think.





There are several loopholes in the system, though. Firstly, if you don't read a privacy policy, you can miss that part about what the websites do with the email address you submit to them. Many websites, such as the Coke Rewards website and places like that, tell you in their privacy policy that your information will be shared between them, their partners, and third parties to send you offers 'that you may be interested in'. This opens you up to recieve anything and everything through your email. And unless you follow up on each and every one of their partners and those third parties, and read *their* privacy policies, too, you don't know whether or not those people are selling your information as well. And they usually are. And because of the original privacy policy, they can show that you indicated you were ok with recieving such emails.





Another caution is when illegitimate companies get your email address. They may appear legit, down to the unsubscribe link, but sometimes that link is only a lure. If you try to unsubscribe your email through that link, the company will pay no attention to your unsubscribe request; as far as they're concerned, you've just confirmed that your email address is valid.





Market research companies are not usually the ones involved in this sort of thing. There are some; these are the companies that are trying to get you to pay them some sort of monthly, yearly, or one-time fee to take their surveys. But legitamite market research companies never charge you any money, nor are they usually involved in spamming, in my experience.
Reply:doubtful.