Calling Out All Affiliate Networks: When Will You Give Up Personal Info?
- Thread starter AdHustler
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Mike left a great response and for the most part he is right on. I would add a comment about this: "In the context of the FTC coming knocking, i would guess that any .network will eventually give your information to them either willingly or by force" I don't believe any network should "willingly" give out any affiliate information, assuming willingly means without a court ordered subpoena, or undisputed evidence of misleading and or fraudulent activity. It is a networks responsibility to protect the personal identifiable information of it's affiliates, clients, and consumer data. Releasing this information to anyone without either the network having strong evidence of fraudulent or misleading activity or a subpoena is a violation of trust. But I do agree, there are more than a few networks that would easily be bullied by sharp cut-throat lawyers and feds. From what i understand Copeac is not one of them, and i can tell you at Motive we take this serious and are not easily persuaded no matter who is asking for the information.
Great tocpic!!!! BTW
Great tocpic!!!! BTW
I had no idea there were so many CEO/Founders here. Can we get a full list somewhere not in the middle of a thread?
Almost all of them read this forum, whether they post or not...
I can also vouch for Market Leverage as I spoke to them in depth after Jonathan Volk called them out for not giving him another affiliates info. They confirmed that they would never give out any affiliates information unless they were legally forced to do so.
Its what I've been saying for a while now.. WickedFire is far more powerful and influential than most of you affiliates even know. The things posted here can have a really big effect on networks and how they do business. Thats also why I tell you guys not to call networks out or post support related shit unless its your absolute last resort. So when you want an answer to a question like this thread's topic, you post it here and can always expect owners of networks to chime in and tell it how it is. There are over 2000 networks out there, and so far only around 5 guys chimed in. The rest either agree with whats being posted, don't post here because they are too afraid, or don't want to be bothered answering important questions. To each their own though.
For Advaliant it would need to be a subpoena for us to give up an affiliates information. A lot of lawyers blow hot air and we have solved many problems in the past by simply asking the affiliate in question to make the required changes to make the lawyers happy.
As for the FTC, if they come knocking you know something serious is going on and a network may not have much of a choice but to give up an affiliates information once the proper legal paperwork has been presented to them. As has been mentioned earlier though, it would take a long time before the FTC would get involved and there would be many warning signs prior to the knock on the virtual door.
As an affiliate, keep it clean for the most part. Find out what really makes sense when promoting diet related products so you can have longevity in the business. Keep in mind that the FTC is not the only one policing, eventually the sites you're generating traffic from, Facebook, Myspace, etc. will kill your campaign because of outlandish claims. We see it on our network everyday. Most of our top affiliates on diet have credible claims on their diet sites/blogs and drive consistent, high volume daily traffic and have little issues with campaigns being rejected.
Jivan Manhas
President/Founder
As for the FTC, if they come knocking you know something serious is going on and a network may not have much of a choice but to give up an affiliates information once the proper legal paperwork has been presented to them. As has been mentioned earlier though, it would take a long time before the FTC would get involved and there would be many warning signs prior to the knock on the virtual door.
As an affiliate, keep it clean for the most part. Find out what really makes sense when promoting diet related products so you can have longevity in the business. Keep in mind that the FTC is not the only one policing, eventually the sites you're generating traffic from, Facebook, Myspace, etc. will kill your campaign because of outlandish claims. We see it on our network everyday. Most of our top affiliates on diet have credible claims on their diet sites/blogs and drive consistent, high volume daily traffic and have little issues with campaigns being rejected.
Jivan Manhas
President/Founder
Since advaliant responded now, I'll give us a 50% chance of getting one more response from any of those mentioned above. 0.0001% of any more than that one.
Great thread though.
Brandon,
My rule is: The affiliate's information is private. Period.
At YEP! the only individuals that have access to your information are myself, Anton who is my partner and Majid our programmer (he made the YEP! system).
This is where it ends. No one else, (I don't care who you are or what you do) will have access to the information unless it is over my dead body.
Seriously as a network, we have a real responsibility, which is to protect our affiliates. The key word is: RESPONSIBILITY.
Whatever network BREAKS that responsibility does not deserve its affiliates.
My rule is: The affiliate's information is private. Period.
At YEP! the only individuals that have access to your information are myself, Anton who is my partner and Majid our programmer (he made the YEP! system).
This is where it ends. No one else, (I don't care who you are or what you do) will have access to the information unless it is over my dead body.
Seriously as a network, we have a real responsibility, which is to protect our affiliates. The key word is: RESPONSIBILITY.
Whatever network BREAKS that responsibility does not deserve its affiliates.
Great post Mike. The we've been looking at starting our own offer and have interviewed a couple of the customer service companies these other guys use. And honestly it's growing pains. No one thought this was going to grow as fast as it has.
Wow, great thread. Kudos to Ruck and Mike on good posts.
I strongly disagree with Steve and ROIShareTeam in regard to being fucked over. I do not believe that should waive the right of privacy at all. That says to me "I'm all for privacy, unless they fuck me". I think people who intentionally fuck you should be terminated, then you deal with them LEGALLY if need be. Don't go around handing their info out willy nilly to get one over back.
I agree with Advaliant too, strongly. People are probably pulling out the false claims to catch acai "before it dies" sort of thing and get their share of the pie before it's all gone. I doubt these people who fear the FTC are planning on staying in Acai for long at all. However, I sure as shit bet this has prepared them a lot for the next big acai.
I want to see how the other big affiliate network companies work with privacy of affiliates. It should be interesting. I want to see CX Digital and Hydra mainly (yeah, not my fav networks).
I strongly disagree with Steve and ROIShareTeam in regard to being fucked over. I do not believe that should waive the right of privacy at all. That says to me "I'm all for privacy, unless they fuck me". I think people who intentionally fuck you should be terminated, then you deal with them LEGALLY if need be. Don't go around handing their info out willy nilly to get one over back.
This forum is very influential and very informative. It's like the Facebook and Myspace for affiliates :updown: What you say and do here is taken seriously and will hold a lot of good and solid weight. Plus, who can resist skittles :xmas-smiley-016:d03boy said:
I agree with Advaliant too, strongly. People are probably pulling out the false claims to catch acai "before it dies" sort of thing and get their share of the pie before it's all gone. I doubt these people who fear the FTC are planning on staying in Acai for long at all. However, I sure as shit bet this has prepared them a lot for the next big acai.
I want to see how the other big affiliate network companies work with privacy of affiliates. It should be interesting. I want to see CX Digital and Hydra mainly (yeah, not my fav networks).
I'm all for privacy as long as the affiliate isn't pulling of fraud, and costing advertisers and others thousands of dollars. Though, I would probably catch up with the affiliate and his fraudulent dealings before the advertiser sends in a taunting complaint. If it comes to some affiliate using a copyrighted image, or using celebs on their landing pages; then I'll protect their privacy until the FTC comes to my door with a subpoena. But as soon as they start taking money out of people's wallets fraudulently, that is where the privacy is broken.
Also, not to mention, that affiliates should not view the network as their scapegoat. A network is there to make it more difficult for the FTC or advertiser contact the affiliate, but not to shield them away from any fraudulent dealings, or take the blame for it. Fuck, I surely don't want to take the blame for an affiliate sending in thousands of fake leads, since it has no benefit to any party, besides his.
And heck, I surely don't want to set any terms that favor fraudulent affiliates. If the person is an honest affiliate, doesn't blatantly rip us off or anyone else, then he deserves privacy.
Awesome thread so far. Great to see how different networks have slightly different views on privacy. Even though by now most that have read all these posts might just make their post about what the majority of us agree with.
It's cute that you pretend to have a real, successful network.
Anyways, great to hear from so many network owners. It's also great to hear that you guys understand the importance of privacy, and won't go blabbing off info to Joe Schmo who thinks we scammed him.
That doesn't matter. Since my views now, aren't going to change one month from now. The rules/regulations that are set for a project, is earlier than it's completion in almost all cases.
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