I like this blog post on “Who do you trust with your data, Google or Apple”? I took the poll and found that I was in the majority, Do-No-Evil-Google, wins.
Is that because Google’s been in the info-biz and Apple is in the product biz? We expect and have given over our info to Google because we know that it is the trade off if we want information on the other side. Apple, however sold us an info distribution product. They have no right to collect information to use only to their advantage. They can and are, but that doesn’t make it right.
It made me think about how this applies to our open source world; when is data-gathering ok and when will it bite you in the market share?
With Search a good sales rep can learn everything about a prospect before meeting with them. You could probably even put together an entire proposal before you sit down, but is that smart? Doing so is an invasion of their intellectual privacy. No one likes to know that you know more about them than they know themselves.
Lesson learned: let your prospect put the polish on the proposal. Don’t be an Apple.
