Intrusive advertising

I absolutely detest it when someone clips flyers on my car. Firstly, who gave you the right to put your trash on my property? Secondly, a dustbin is not always nearby, and if I just toss it on the floor, I could get fined for littering. 

But the worst is when you drive off and only notice it while driving halfway. Rarrr.

Car flyers are an extremely intrusive form of advertising, which doesn't go well with me. It is basically a shove-in-your-face method - you are forced to take (and read) the flyer because it is clipped under your windscreen wiper. This is a contrast from handing out flyers on the streets, because you can choose not to take it.

That reminds me. I have been receiving advertising SMS from a variety of merchants. The most recent one is from CapitaLand, on 25th July. 

<ADV> Vote & Win! CapitaLand & Nat Geo invite you to visit..................... T&Cs apply. Unsub SMS UNADVCM to 97420594

I have been getting quite a few such SMS recently, so I tried to SMS the number given. After I sent it, I realised that I have actually sent it before on 14th March 2011 (it was on my iPhone messages history). 

Well, well. This is an interesting discovery. This means that I have messaged the same advertising agency before, and clearly, I was not removed from their contact list. The most possible explanation is that they only removed my 'tagging' to a particular merchant (in this case, CapitaLand). But this also means that the advertising agency is free to use my contact number for any other merchant that signs up with them.

I am not in the advertising field, so I must admit that I could be wrong. Maybe advertising agencies are not allowed to use any contact numbers that are not provided by the merchant. But given the poor privacy and data protection laws in Singapore, I won't be surprised if they do so. After all, many institutions that have our contact details actually sell them to other parties. It may not be done by the company; someone I know once told me that when he was working in a local bank's credit card department, he would always compile hundreds to thousands of contact information and sell them to third parties for his personal gain.