For a few days now, we have been receiving information from various Facebook users that there a “ page Facebook that supposedly wants to use the flood situation to boost their own business. The site is supposedly an “energy drink manufacturer”. We have been trying to check these statements for days, because we at ZDDK are not entirely sure whether this is the case or not! Today, however, we received a press report from the “ Lower Austria Chamber of Labor ” which reported exactly on this “page”. At this point we are publishing this press report and would like to know YOUR opinion about it: “What do you think about it?
Profiteering or just helpful?”
AKNÖ warns about flood information page on the Internet
“Floods are shamelessly exploited to advertise products”
Vienna (OTS/AKNÖ) – “We advise helpful Austrians not to allow their willingness to help to be taken advantage of. Do not leave any data on www.LSDEnergy.com!” is the warning from the Lower Austrian Chamber of Labor. Info Page – Floods 2013 Austria has almost 125,000 fans on Facebook. In addition to flood pictures and posts about the flood, the site blatantly advertises an energy drink.
On a linked homepage, visitors are asked to register as flood helpers - including their name and telephone number.
Dozens of people have already registered and their data is freely accessible on the Internet.
“We strongly advise against leaving personal information on this homepage.
The data is transmitted unencrypted and is freely visible to everyone. In this way, consumers can quickly become victims of spambots - these are computer programs that search websites for personal data and then use this data illegally for advertising and spam emails," said consumer advocates from the Lower Austrian Chamber of Labor.
In addition, there is no information on the flood information page www.LSDEnergy.com as to whether and in what form the posted data is used by the company itself, how long it is stored, how it is deleted, etc. The online shop for The energy drink is criticized by consumer advocates: “Some of the standards that you would expect from an online shop are missing: exact contractual conditions for online purchases, https encryption when shopping, information about the right of withdrawal, etc.
The AKNÖ is also examining the admissibility of a lawsuit for unfair competition. “Here the flood is shamelessly exploited to advertise products. A limit is being crossed,” says the AKNÖ.
Chamber of Labor Lower Austria
AKNÖ Public Relations,
Head of Service
Tel.: (01) 58883-1200
[email protected]
http://noe.arbeiterkammer.at
UPDATE June 5, 2013 / 8:44 p.m
The Chamber of Labor has just published the following!
Unofficial flood information page improves data protection after AKNÖ criticism
Openly accessible personal data of helpers on the homepage will be deleted
The operator of the Facebook page “Info Page – Flood 2013 Austria” will forward the personal data that volunteers have previously sent to him to an official aid organization and delete the freely viewable user data from his homepage.
This is the result of discussions between the Lower Austrian Chamber of Labor and the energy drink marketer LSDEnergy.
The entrepreneur collected telephone numbers and email addresses of helpful users on his homepage who wanted to help during the flood.
Dozens of people had registered and their data was freely accessible on the Internet. “We have agreed on the careful handling of user data.
The company assured us that no misuse of the data has occurred and will not occur. Necessary changes to the online shop, such as information on the right of withdrawal according to the distance selling directive, will also be made,” says the AKNÖ. The Facebook page itself remains online. “It is not forbidden for a company to want to help in the event of a disaster – as long as applicable laws are adhered to,” says the AKNÖ.
Reference: http://noe.arbeiterkammer.at/online/aknoe-kritik-aktiv-73025.html
ZDDK: Did the Chamber of Labor react too quickly to something that wasn't there?
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )