I was emailed after abandoning a registration form. I did not click Submit. This is not ok.
Tags: privacy, webdev, security, watercooler
Published: 2020-06-01 19:48:12

We had a baby recently and my wife and I were online shopping for breast pumps. Our health insurance company website redirected me to a website named [aeroflowbreastpumps.com] (https://aeroflowbreastpumps.com/qualify-through-insurance) where they had a form that I could input my insurance details and this website would take care of the billing for me and have my insurance pay for it.
I filled out the form but did not submit the form yet since my wife wanted to get some more feedback on which model we were going to purchase.

Approximately 10 minutes later I got an email from "aeroflowbreastpumps.com" telling me how close I am to qualifying for a breast pump.
![Email ad](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/f99fr7pc4jxzodcqbzj4.png)

I was quite shocked since I knew I had never clicked submit and I still had the tab open in my browser with the information filled out.
So I decided to try it out with another email address of mine and see if it'll happen again. 

## Sure enough it did...!

I took some screenshots so you can see for yourself:
- The Website Posting Form Data Before I Click Submit:
![The Website Posting Form Data Before I Click Submit](https://media.giphy.com/media/SA6jJsmBxH8e85oOLe/giphy.gif)

- You Can See The Params Being Added To The Query String(The initial email is shown below) 
![You Can See The Params Being Added To The Query String](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/h2y8dcshn6ad7ep5p3gm.png)

- Scripts Initiated By Input Change
![Scripts Initiated By Input Change](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/t2o5hw7rknwjj642wn0j.png)

- The website will try to track any activity and save it with the email it took.
![Email Input Trigger Code](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/uez0e1xovqalp4y9bp6k.png)
![Email Input Trigger Code](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/bsyb47y5rcy8860ykxmt.png)

## Who's Is Behind This Technology?
The company behind this is called [AddShoppers](https://www.addshoppers.com/blog/email-retargeting-co-op).
AddShoppers has a program named *"Email Retargeting® Co-op + SafeOpt® Consumer Rights Management Integrated Platform"*

Let them explain it to you in their own words:
- The Problem: Customers Don't Always Want To Give Their Email...
![The Problem](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/r3a9q2zmelsm8j304lay.png)

"Regardless of email acquisition..."

- The Solution: Network many sites to a point where at least one knows who you are, once identified that website will share it with the rest of the network.

![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/oe99kkp9q789lx4wvf7t.png)

Now, let's think about how this would play out off-line with your physical presence.
Imagine if every store you visited would take a picture of you and then share and compare it with neighboring stores until they find one that you are a customer of and has your information. 
If such an agreement was in place, that store would now share who you are with the store that you are not yet a customer of and then add you to their marketing list.
This is exactly what "AddShoppers" does.

## Scary(and creepy)...! 
I'm not accusing them if this is legal since this is way out of my realm and they probably have a legal team to back this kind of stuff but it's still not ok. It's not right.
If your going to take my email address then at least let me know before I type anything.
Spamming customers will make them lose trust in you more than anything.
Integrity, communication and honesty are not just for real life social interactions.

The internet is real. The people using it are real. *Be real.*