I’m a lawyer and privacy advocate at Abine, an online privacy startup in Boston (http://www.abine.com), and I write our privacy blog (http://abine.com/wordpress). I recently came across Branding Insight, and I thought it was excellent.

We’re actually going through a rebranding right now: the name “”Abine”" was a placeholder that somehow stuck, and none of our customers can pronounce it. It stood for A Bit Is Not Enough (when it comes to privacy). Ick. Anyway, the topics of privacy and branding may not have a lot of overlap, but the fact that you’re a blogger means that you’re involved in a lot of online privacy issues: things like how you handle copyright issues or takedown requests, whether you track your site visitors, and how you store your visitors’ data (if at all). When you’re a webmaster, all sorts of things can come out of the wordwork. I wanted to say hi and extend myself as a resource in the privacy and internet-tracking sphere. You cover a lot of topics, and I’d be happy to help if you find yourself in that realm in one of your posts.

My stance isn’t “”don’t ever use the internet”"–it’s a great part of our lives–but instead get control over the internet; make it safer; and keep doing what you’re doing–just be smart about it. That’s why we make software that blocks covert tracking, but doesn’t interfere with a person’s internet experience.

I would love to hear what you think about advertisers collecting data about you and your interests to target you with ads and to sell to third parties. Is it a concern? Something you don’t really worry about? Something you don’t quite understand?

I look forward to connecting soon!

-Sarah

I work in the research industry – primarily focused in the areas of data collection and operations – love the action, the people and the convergence of arts and science. I’m in a new role now… While I was looking for sales leads I stumbled upon your blog. Appreciate your thoughts.

BTW I assume you found the webmaster/developer/web marketing know-it-all – also impressive.