Shutterfly Compromised My Privacy and I Got A Free Photobook Out of It

« A Dog / Kids Dilemma: What about Boone? / How to Get Beer Stains Out of Your Carpet in 3 Easy Steps »

Shutterfly Compromised My Privacy and I Got A Free Photobook Out of It

Posted on 04 04, 2008 under Technology by foodad | Comments

Our family loves to use shutterfly.com. We find it really convenient for ordering pictures in a variety of formats including prints, postcards, holiday cards and albums. My wife very thoughtfully put together an album for my mother for her birthday. My mother is one of those people who will never tell you what she what she wants. She has always been a person who honestly thinks she does not deserve to have stuff. She always loves to get pictures of the kids though, particularly because she lives in Ohio and we do not. The album arrived the other day. My wife opened it to admire her handy work before wrapping it and to our surprise, the cover was ours, but the photos inside were of some family from Philadelphia. Immediate family fury ensued.

My wife was immediately irate and was on the phone with shutterfly.com’s customer support. When the initial rep agreed only to expedite the shipping, we felt that perhaps they did not understand the severity of the matter. See, shutterfly had compromised the privacy of both our family and the family from Philly. She put me on the phone and he was pretty much willing to do whatever it took to make us happy. One photo album credit and an apology later, we were off the phone avoiding unnecessary legal action. The fact is that because I deal with data on a daily basis, I understand how sensitive this sort of thing can be and how serious it is to compromise someone’s data. I think I was a little easier on shutterfly.com than say an attorney might have been, but I did give them an earful and remind them that quality assurance is extremely important, particularly when dealing with sensitive information.