CarrieVS
@CarrieVS
Best posts made by CarrieVS
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RE: In other news today...
A spokesman said the issue was not with the Scottish National Standardised Assessments (SNSA) but with browser or device settings on some machines.
Design browser-based spelling test software. Don't prevent browsers from spellchecking. Don't tell schools to change browser settings away from default. Definitely a problem with the users' machines.
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RE: The first rule of Dunning-Kruger club...
I've been working on a bunch of new stuff for about two weeks all told and I've already been through a spike of 'this makes sense, I totally know what I'm doing', down into the chasm of 'I know nothing and contribute nothing' and just about starting to feel like I have a handle on it again.
Next thing: meta-Dunning-Kruger. The less confident you are, the more you assume you must be good because you know about Dunning-Kruger, which falsely bolsters your confidence until you wind up on the front page of TDWTF because you thought you knew what you were doing.
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The Saga of OpinionPanel - Malice or Incompetence?
This is gonna be a long one, I'm afraid.
I signed up to Opinion Panel some years ago. They do market research (I am aware that I am the product) and theoretically pay participants in Amazon vouchers - in practice, they only pay out at multiples of £25, which makes it really easy to do a lot of work for them and get nothing. I have had a payout in the past though.
I always thought that the results were sent to Opinion Panel's clients directly, although I'm now being led to believe that they write the surveys to the client's specifications and collect the results themselves and send clients the data.
Last Tuesday I got a £3 survey (they generally offer £1 per ten minutes it's expected to take you, with £4 being the maximum. Most surveys are £1-2) which asked for information on personal finances. The questions were sufficiently specific and detailed to give me pause, but since it was assured to be anonymous I didn't think there was any likelihood of harm.
Until the end of the survey when they asked me for my full name and street address.
Naturally I didn't complete the survey, and proceeded to compose
a stroppy email to their support address:
Hello,I spent a considerable amount of time today completing the survey referenced in the subject line, only to reach the end and be presented with questions asking for my name and address.
As there is no plausible legitimate reason for market research surveys to require personal identifying information of this type, I can only presume this survey is a scam of some description, most likely an attempt at identity theft, in which Opinion Panel has been - perhaps unwittingly - made complicit.
I have occasionally found surveys to which Opinion Panel has referred me to ask questions which I considered unnecessarily intrusive but I have never before been asked to personally identify myself.
Needless to say I did not continue with the survey or submit my responses - although I cannot be certain that the answers I had already entered were not transmitted - and I would like to deactivate my account with Opinion Panel as I no longer trust your vetting of the surveys you promote. (Your website directs me to contact this address for that purpose.)
In relation to that, as I have over £16 worth of current points I would like to know whether there is any possibility of actually receiving the rewards I was promised for all the surveys I have completed since I last received a voucher. However that is a secondary concern by far compared with protecting my personal data and identity. Additionally I wish to alert you so that, if you do indeed have honest intentions and are unaware of the nature of some of the surveys you promote, you can take steps to protect your users.
Regards,
Carrie
At this point I supposed their client to be criminal and Opinion Panel simply incompetent.It took them until Monday to respond with
this reply:
Hi Carrie,Thank you for your email and apologies for the delayed response.
We apologise for any grievances we have caused and we would like to resolve this issue as efficiently as possible.
Would it be possible for you to indicate which survey you had taken part in , as we would like to have as great an understanding of the issue at hand as possible to deal with any concerns you may have as best as we can.
I would also like to assure you our intentions are pure, we care greatly about the protection of our panelists personal information as we abide by the MRS' Code of Conduct, Data Protection Act and Fair Data's Ten principles. We display this on our website to assure individuals that we are a trustworthy company.
Lastly, in relation to the cashing out of your points, you would unfortunately not be able to cash out at 1600 points as we have a cash out threshold of 2500 points, this is due to the denomination of rewards code that we provide to panellists.
We sincerely apologise for any inconveniences caused and we hope this issue can be resolved.
Kind regards,
George
It seems I'd made a mistake in assuming that the reference number which was automatically added to the subject line of my email by clicking on the "contact support" link from the email about the survey was correct.
And it appears I've been remiss in blaming them: I should have simply looked on their website and seen their claim to be the good guys, which obviously proves both their intentions and competence.
My response:
HiThe survey in question is PM2004W16 - my apologies, I assumed that the reference automatically added to the subject of my email when I used the link included in the survey invitation was correct.
This survey asked for very detailed information on personal finances including providers of financial products and precise names of products held, before requesting the personal identifying information I described in my previous email.
I would appreciate it if you would take the time to tell me whether this survey had been vetted and you (not personally, of course) thought this was appropriate, or whether Opinion Panel will allow anyone to ask their users anything.
I must say I am disappointed by the time it has taken you to respond to my original email, given the seriousness of the issue. I would have expected investigating an incident where you may have exposed your users to identity theft to be a priority. I would imagine that most users who are going to will have already completed the survey in question and it would therefore be too late to take action to mitigate this incident.
I'm sorry to hear that, after exposing me to potential identity theft, you are going to withhold the rewards I had already earned, but £16 is certainly not worth the risk of completing any more of your surveys. One must pick ones battles.
I would like you to deactivate my account, please. I expect to receive no more emails from Opinion Panel, except in regards to following up this incident - which as I have already mentioned I would like to hear about.
Regards,
Carrie
I should point out here that there was no indication that the name and address questions were in any way different to the others. There was no notice along the lines of "this information will not be given to Opinion Panel's clients and is only for $supposedInnocuousPurposes".
Here's what my dear friend George had to say about that
Hi Carrie,Thank you for providing us with the survey in question and no need to apologise.
We understand that the questions asked were fairly intrusive and alarming, the questions regarding your personal finances we're asked as part of the information we had been asked to gather by our client. The personal information we had asked for at the end of the survey was to be used with harmless intentions, as we needed this information to categorise the responses into different groups.
So to explain this in more detail, if you had provided us with a London address we would have ten put you into the south eastern category, and then from there we would be able to compile the responses you and others in this category had gave us and from there we would be able to provide our client with the necessary statistics and data they had asked us for. We had also asked for your name to simply be able to go back and check over the data that you had gave us while compiling research.
We had vetted the survey and we had deemed the questions to be appropriate as we maintain compliance with MRS code of conduct, so all information gathered through our surveys are safe. By abiding by MRS Code of Conduct, Data Protection Act and Fair Data's Ten principles, we are strictly prohibited from sharing personal data such as your name and address ETC to third party's. So if you was to have completed the survey the client would have never been provided any personal information that would have put yourself at risk.
We also apologise for the delayed reply, but our support system works on a first come first serve basis, so we would not have seen your email or the subject of your email until we had cleared up the emails that had been sent to us before yours.
We are also sad to hear you wish to leave the panel, i have since unsubscribed your account.
I hope this response is satisfactory and we apologise for the issues caused and we also apologise for the grievances caused.
Kind regards,
George
Again, how utterly remiss of me not to realise that the MRS logo on their site proves conclusively that they're neither crooks nor fools. And he's kindly unsubscribed my account - missed a trick here, I should have asked for it to be deleted, but I was following the wording on their website.
My next shot
Hi,Would you kindly explain what benefit is gained by asking for address, over (for instance) region, for the purpose of grouping responses by region?
Would you also please explain in what way asking for a full name allows you to "check over the data that [a participant] had gave (sic)" that would not be possible using a less sensitive identifier - for instance email address which has the advantage of being unique, unlike name, or a simple generated ID number which you would not have to rely on participants to provide.
Regards,
Carrie
Keeping it short and to the point this time. Admittedly it was formatted quite badly, which I was not aware of until after I'd sent it, because I still haven't figured out how to use an iPhone properly (my beloved Blackberry finally gave up the ghost a month ago).
George, fine fellow that he is, was not dismayed by that bold sally
Hi Carrie,By asking for addresses we are able to provide clients with data specific to that region, so as an example if we was to do a survey based on sports brands we would be able to narrow down which brands are most popular in which regions. (sic)
Through using a names it allows easier integration into our the system that we use to compile the research we gather, as the use of systems often results in exports into different platforms not functioning properly.
I am not going to be in till next Monday as i am on leave, but i will be able to reply to any of your emails then.
Kind regards,
George
Were you born yesterday, George, or do you just think I was?
I know you claim that you need my street address to tell what region I'm from, and that my name is your preferred identifier - even though it's never been asked in any other survey, if he means that they use it to link responses from different surveys. This tells me nothing you didn't tell me last time. I asked two very specific questions which you have not answered.
I also don't recall having signed up to have my data kept by them or used for any other purposes than being sent to their clients for the specific surveys I complete, so even if name was a good identifier for that purpose (how many John Smiths do they have in their userbase?) I'm still dubious about that.
Since I have to wait until Monday to hear back from good old George anyway, I haven't yet composed another response, and since this initial post is getting tolerably epic, and not in a good way, I'll update after I do.
In the meantime, I open the floor for comments.
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RE: Some typos are larger than others...
I've seen worse, I think. I read a published - not even self-published - novel which consistently got the word for Ancient Roman central heating wrong. Not, by itself, an entirely unforgivable error: it's not really obscure knowledge but it's not exactly universal.
But... it should have been hypocaust. The word used was holocaust.
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RE: The Cat Status Thread
Ruby came home without her collar on today. Second time in as many weeks - the first she had a chunk of loosened fur where clearly she'd got caught on something and the safety catch had done its job. This time no such obvious evidence but that doesn't mean it didn't.
I'll buy her a new one tomorrow, but I thought that I'd post on NextDoor asking if anyone in the neighbourhood happened to find it.
I got a reply pretty quickly from someone saying that someone might be taking it off as "cats shouldn't wear collars."And then very quickly after that - in fact while I was composing a response - deleted their reply.
The fact that they obviously thought better of saying it makes me very suspicious. And I'm absolutely furious, because of course it's a safety collar and of course I tested the clip to make sure it gives way easily, and I have it on her primarily for her safety, because she's a black cat and it's reflective so that cars can see her in bad light. So if this person did steal her collar, they are actually putting her in more danger than otherwise.
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RE: The Off By One Thread
Check your privilege, you racist sithlord.
OK, technically that's transposing several letters. But I'll argue that I only moved the H
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RE: In other news today...
FFS
The fine was dropped, the council saying that they expect their officers to use common sense, but according to her father the kid was really distressed.
Latest posts made by CarrieVS
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RE: The Cat Status Thread
Human status: enjoying some chocolate.
Cat status: repeatedly biting me because I won't let her poison herself. -
RE: The Cat Status Thread
@Zerosquare I mean technically it worked twice, because the dose is two pills.
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RE: The Cat Status Thread
Update: turns out prawns worked once.
I'm not going to tell you what's currently working because it's bound to jinx it.