Technology As Innovator

The Context

This is a true story of my experience of trying out testing a Vietnamese web service. There are many things to improve about its business model, PR strategy, usability, security. In the context of this entry, I only focus on Privacy and Customer Support which raised much concerns in me.

I could have named the service with all screen shots, but eventually I decided to keep it confidential to save space for them to improve on what I have to say here.

The Story

I paid to be trapped!

Company C launched a revamped version of their web service W.

Deciding to try it out, I paid the activation SMS and went to my profile only to end up in horror:

My profile was completely public:

• My email was NOT masked. Full mailto: link
• My phone number which had been used for activation was public
• Postal address was mandatory

I felt like was accurately trapped:

• There was NO option to hide profile from public view (let alone hide from other users)
• There was NO option to change email as it was login credential
• There was NO option to change phone number as it was registered as credential
• There was NO option to delete or deactivate my account
• The only thing I could do was change my postal address, which I had been carefully enough not to put my real postal address in the first place

Bare-naked, trapped, public my profile lay.

Gotta find my way out

Horrified, I looked around the site for a cure and there was 3 options to contact them: email, phone or IM

I emailed them via a form… to receive a script error. I switched from Firefox 3 to IE 7, the form hung. I tried Safari, no help either. There was no sign my email had reached them. No email was given either.

I picked up the phone and dialed their numbers one by one… no answer.

I buzzed their IM… no sign of living.

…helpless…

After two months of continually buzzing them through IM, eventually I was served.

And this is the show conversation:

Translation:

Tai Tran: hello. Ciao

Customer Support: Ciao

Tai Tran: I’m the user of W. I have a request for W to remove my account. I wonder how do I do this?

Customer Support: please provide me your username

Tai Tran: username: <censored>

Customer Support: I deleted it for you

Tai Tran: oh, please let me check it. <verified that my account was deleted from the site> Thanks a lot Have a nice day

When I saw this SQL error upon refreshing, I knew my account was deleted. An SQL command, Run. Simple. Quick. Painless.

I shifted from horrified to stunned:

• S/he should have and could have asked for credentials: email, phone number, secret question, other details. S/he did NOT.
• The Yahoo! account I used had NOTHING relating to my account at W.
• So it means ANY one can delete ANY account just by giving a username which is public.
• On the sale perspective, s/he should have and could have asked the reason why I decided to stop using their service. S/he did NOT.

Shocked. Stunned. Speechless.

Morals Well I understand

I understand that privacy feature consumes their money and time.

I understand that the number of users with very strict requirements for privacy like me isn’t that many.

I understand that the number of users willing to stop using the service after paying isn’t that many.

I understand that Customer Support / Contact Center department is always busy it’s best to solve an issue as quickly as possible.

… so it leaves room, way too much room for improvements.

With growing enthusiasm as well as concerns, it’s high time the alarm was on for media providers and media consumers.

My suggestions

I have some tips to give away on this

1. Provide privacy options. To save web service providers efforts to analyze, I give away a high-level specification on privacy for free below
2. Do NOT enforce poor privacy on users. If it’s your policy not to allow certain amendment, speak it out before registrants hit Submit on registration form.
3. Start training programs for your crew so each could do the sale.

FREE specification of Privacy Options

What do you think of this story? How do you react when realizing that your privacy was not guaranteed?

Some points to note when reading this statistics:

1. It’s from a survey on a VNExpress, Vietnam’s number 1 online newspaper. Readers from other news don’t see this poll. [Addendum: this poll being on an online newspaper helps attributing the dominating portion of "news" in the result. I thought this deduction was too obvious but certain response proved me wrong]
2. Readers using a RSS Reader who are more tech-savvy don’t see this poll
3. The poll only asks for the most usage from voters, no multiple-choice. Consequence: the result doesn’t reflect the actual time people spend on web
4. Perception: some voters might confuse “activities that take most time” with “activities that add most values”
5. Readers interested in other columns might totally skip this article, let alone scroll down, click and fill in the capcha to vote
6. The survey is not done officially but is only a side poll on a very different article
7. Many people might have voted on “News” to show their support for VNExpress, like the behavior of bookmarking Google
8. I’m quite surprised Online Game was not in the list
9. If VNExpress’ intention for this survey to show that Social Networking is depressing Porn, they might have failed because
   • Porn percentage is 2.4 times that of Social Networking plus Blogging
   • No historical data (i.e. the same survey in 2007) were shown to indicate that Social Networking is really growing over porn
   • Even if (I say if) percentage of porn surfing in 2008 is less than the volume in previous years, absolute number or ‘quality’ of porn surf might not have decreased because obviously there are more Internet users in Vietnam than in previous years
10. Is FPT spreading the good words on social networking to pave the way for its new Social Network? If yes, I wonder why the article misses Online Game - one current FPT business - though.
11. While the scientific validity and reliability of this survey are highly questionable, it can be read in certain ways that prove certain arguments.

A. What happened, basically

Chip did a very nice coverage with her immediate post Twitter SaiGon 1st Gathering. Thanks a lot Chip, it wouldn’t never have been successful without you.

B. What happened in details

The detailed agenda included the normal information exchange and 3 main sections as listed below:

B. 1. E-Learner Platform 2.0

Two students, Mat and Hung, and starting to build their grand program on teaching children on an E-Learning environment which emphasizes Openness and Cost-saving and takes advantages of Web 2.0

Hung’s presentation immediately inspired many interesting debates. Apart from popular arguments on technology, costs and practicability of the tools, what impressed me most was that we brought the Willingness for Alternative Solutions on the table. We didn’t stop at the fad of new tools, we touched the heart of a Mindset issue.

For now, to avoid repeating Hung’s words duplicating Hung’s contents, I invite you to CLICK HERE to see their slide show for the program.

B. 2. BarCamp Saigon

“BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants.”

So why would you want to join the BarCamp in Saigon:

1. If you’re a geek, you know what you do
2. If you’re in the technology field, this is a chance for you to meet with people with similar interests love
3. It’s a learning opportunity
4. It’s not only for networking. It’s open and honest
5. It’s a chance for you to see, hear, touch and talk about new things fresh right out of people’s head
6. If you’re an analyst, come over here to this information goldmine
7. Even if you’re not in technology, you might want to come here and share the problems you have in your jobs and maybe someone with a technical expertise can help with a solution you’ve never thought of
8. Start-ups, meet people here!
9. Venture capitalists, all geek faces around the region are here
10. Please feel free to add your point here or with a comment below

Please simply put the date in your calendar: 15/11/2008

B. 3. Mentioning some web services

Google, Navigos’ Caravat and Yahoo! Portal clone Timnhanh. Only quickly through though; we didn’t dig deep down on each.

B. 4. An investment opportunity

…on technology, blogging and media… something that’s never been done in Vietnam.

You don’t want to miss the next part. I know you don’t want to miss the next gathering. Please CLICK HERE to subscribe, you’ll never miss the next good things.

C. My Key Observations

Obviously, the topics don’t want to go away from my mind so easily. There are some few things I’ve observed from our gathering that I’d like to share:

C. 1. CommunicatioN first, then media

The gathering is an evidence of “CommunicatioN, not CommunicationS“. Technology (Twitter) serves as a platform to build and strengthen the human quality of communicatioN.

C. 2. Synergistic power

Unlike networking functions I had previously attended/organized, the gathering was full of positive, creative and synergistic energy, thanks to the burning passion and rich ideas from each attendant.

In other words, it was networking not for the sake of sheer networking. It happens when the good comes first, rather than the goods come first.

How do you agree with me?

C. 3. The internet is so full & rich has it fully reached the users?

This exclamation came from N., a non-tech-savvy professional: “The internet is so rich. I only have a Facebook and a LinkedIn”. This brought 2 thoughts up on me:

1. It reminds me of “Way of a Scientist” that I was thinking hard on one year ago.

We (solution providers) want to keep users from the complexity of technology.

2. It’s a good excuse for me to bring this statistics on the table: 58% of people don’t know what social networking is.

How about Vietnamese users? What is the percentage do you think? I believe that analyzing my following suggestions would be useful:

1. The opportunities of expressing via more traditional channels. This should help justifying the love for blogging in many Vietnamese users
2. The willingness to look for alternatives. This should help explaining Yahoo! 360’s huge success in Vietnam
3. The amount of time an average Vietnamese spend on online activities as compared to their peers in some other countries such as US or Japan. This should help reasoning the growth of social networks.
4. Physical distance between Vietnamese mutual connection. This might help with analyzing micro-blogging.

C. 4. Globalization

Kevin gave us a compliment “This is the first time we mid expats and Vietnamese that works!” Thanks Kevin, I don’t know about others, but if I am to name one thing that pushes me on, it would be my conviction in being a “Global Villager”.

Hold your breath…

…the next event is coming soon…