Today I was watching the news about a man named Robert Bulmash, who is the president and founder of Private Citizen, Inc. He uses a post office box in Naperville and has set up what seems to be a thriving business on the internet pushing people to close their ears to telemarketers and their doors to what Mr. Bulmash calls “junk” mail: “When you get junk mail during April, don't open it. Instead, write "Refused" on it, save it and on May 1st (Saturday - May Day), take it all back to your post office” as a gesture of protest. Mr. Bulmash and his organization is selling $10 and $20 annual memberships to people promising services that that will stop “junk” calls and “junk” mail. He is also selling a book “So... You want to Sue a Telemarketer.”

I am all for the protection of privacy. What we once assumed and were told was how “private” our information was. Then we all became outraged when we found out it wasn’t private at all. Whenever you filled out a survey or sent in a warranty certificate or entered a contest, that information was sorted according to various categories, compiled into lists and placed in a database. Whether it was being kept by a governmental agency, a for-profit or non-profit company, or an advertising agency being paid to track information, it was somewhere for someone to use. That infamous American entrepreneurial spirit kicked in and what came next was to be expected. Why not sell these lists.

Today filling out surveys is big business. Companies and organizations want your opinion and they are willing to pay you for it. You yourself are selling your personal information without realizing. Your interests, your hobbies, your preferences, your opinions, are being sent to a database once again, another list.

Mr. Bulmash contends that you should use the Internet to promote your services. This is all well and fine. However, every time you go on-line, before you can even get any information or subscribe to anything, you are again asked for personal information. You have to keep in mind that this information is flowing over the Internet. And given the fact that so many viruses and hackers are out there, you can be sure that once again all this personal information is no longer personal. And Mr. Bulmash and Private Citizen, Inc. ask you for that personal information as well, and you pay him and his organization to be included on yet another list in order to be entitled to services that promise to protect your privacy.

Although I use the Internet for my business as well as for personal reasons, I am not willing to trade in convenience for my personal information. I realize I have to give out certain personal information. But then I go back into my profile and delete it. If I cannot do this on-line, then I find the telephone number of the business or organization that is offering a subscription or service or product over the internet and I send them an e-mail or place a telephone call and ask them to remove my personal information from their database. I prefer to fax or mail them my check or credit card number or whatever personal information is necessary to complete the transaction. Any body can do this for themselves. I don’t need to be included on yet another list.

I delve deeper into the PrivateCitizen.com site to find links to other organizations that are promoting alternative ways for businesses and non-profits to promote their products or services other than direct mail. “Junk” mail, they say, “is hurting the environment” and should be stopped.

Every business, organization and individual in America looks for ways to promote services and products to others. The mail has always been there for us to communicate with each other. The mail is about the only way left for the small business owner to get in touch with people. You can’t call people anymore. They may be on the Do Not Call List. And you don’t know until you check whether they are on the list. Now that small business owner has to buy a list. Do you not see the irony of all of this? The same people that didn’t want to be on a list are actually signing up to be included on a list that someone has to buy.

Technology is already moving toward a paperless society. However, I think, that until we reach this stage, a better, more effective solution is to shred the items you don’t want and recycle them so they can be reused.

To help the environment instead of just throwing out any mail I perceive as unwanted, I shred it. I then gather all this shredded material and leave it out for recycling. They pick up my recycled materials every time my garbage is picked up. Or, I could personally take these items to the recycling center and get paid for all this “junk” mail. Companies make recycled paper products. I use recycled paper for all my business and personal needs. Other companies reuse these materials to create alternative, more effective, yet economical recycled construction materials.

I personally don’t have anything against the mail I receive. To me none of it is junk, initially. I decide that whatever piece I get, if I don’t need it, then it becomes junk. I receive solicitations day in and day out. I look through every piece and decide. Any letter, card, newspaper, catalog or magazine, whether you have it delivered, go to the store to purchase or receive it in the mail, it all eventually becomes “junk.” I read or look through the cards, letters, newspapers, magazines and catalogs. When I don’t need them anymore, they become “junk.” I also read books. They are also made of paper products. I sell or donate the books I don’t need or want anymore.

I think a more practical solution would be to lobby for more legislation so people have more choices to “opt out” and to place higher restrictions on the gathering of personal information with the intent to sell or track specific behavior. I do not think the solution is to pay to be on another list.

I don’t want people to stop communicating with each other. I have not placed myself on the Do Not Call Registry. If someone calls me that I don’t want to talk to, I ask him or her to take me off his or her list and I hang up. If I want to talk to them, I do. It’s my choice. When I am having dinner or am busy with a client I have an answering machine that takes a message. If it’s someone I don’t want to talk to I don’t call him or her back. If it’s someone I do want to talk to, I call him or her. Some people screen calls. They listen to hear who is on the line and then they decide. The same applies to fax machines. If I kept getting faxes I didn’t want, I would call up the company that was sending them and ask them to take me off the list.

It is only governmental agencies, large corporations, organizations, and politicians that have the revenue and can afford mass mailings and direct marketing. But you have to consider something else. These same governmental agencies, large corporations, organizations, and politicians can also afford to pay people to prepare these mailings. Telemarketers get paid to call you. That recycling plant pays people to recycle all those paper products. Other companies pay other people to think of new and innovative ways to reuse these recycled products and pay people to create new, recycled products that are resold and then reused.

What are we really doing in the name of privacy? Are we really effectively working towards protecting our privacy? I don’t think so. What we are really doing is taking away jobs from that student who needs to pay for tuition and takes that part time telemarketing position or that mom who has to work and needs extra income for her family in a tough economy so she becomes a postal worker and walks through the rain and the cold to make sure that “junk” mail comes to your front door. And what happens to that small business owner trying to compete with the larger companies and chains?

I am that small independent, business owner. I am a real estate broker as well as an appraiser. I tried cold calling and spent a lot of money making phone calls to people asking them if they were interested in buying or selling. I then spent a lot of money placing advertisements in newspapers and magazines showing properties listed for sale. I would wait for people to call me.

But you know what I found out through my years of experience? People didn’t call because they saw all those properties one after another in the newspaper or in a magazine. They called because they wanted to buy or sell and needed information. They called because they wanted to talk to someone to advise them. They called because they wanted someone to meet with them in person and show them properties they could buy. The most compelling reason they called was because they got my mail. I had mailed them a flyer or a postcard, a business card, or a Christmas card. And when they decided they were ready to buy or wanted to place their property up for sale, they pulled out that card, or that flyer, or that postcard or that business card, and they called.

My point is this. I do not think the solution is to close your eyes, your ears and your doors to everything and everyone in the name of privacy. I prefer to have more choices. I don’t want people to stop calling me. I don’t want people to stop mailing things to me. Sometimes I like what they have to say. I decide. And I still want America to be the land of opportunities.

Zoriana Fedunyszyn, Realtor®, ABR (Accredited Buyer Representative), e-PRO (Certified Internet Professional), RECS (Real Estate CyberSpace Specialist), Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser, has over 10 years of real estate industry experience. She is the president of an independent, nonfranchised woman-owned real estate services business, Zoriana Real Estate Network, Ltd., Oak Forest, IL. Zoriana graduated from Loyola with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Drama and attended the prestigious Harrington Institute of Interior Design. She is a member of NAR, IAR, REBAC, Realtor® Association of the West/South Suburban Chicagoland, Appraisal Institute (Residential Associate) and NAIFA (Candidate). E-mail Zoriana at zoriana_re@hotmail.com or visit http://www.ZorianaRealEstate.com or http://www.HomeSweetDeal.com.

Published: May 5, 2004

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