How census takers and greedy marketers abuse online surveys to their own detriment
When I surfed the United States Census Bureau’s website earlier today I was asked to fill out a survey. It had thirty-seven questions, including “how much do you think we can trust the government in Washington to do what is right?” and “Please rate the amount of information displayed on each page of the site.”
I’d be happy to help out the Census Bureau by answering maybe a handful of questions, but if you want thirty-seven answers I’m going to charge you.
That misguided Census Bureau survey can likely be written off as the result of a commendable personal and professional passion for data gathering, but when focus-group agencies turn online screening of potential focus-group participants into online consumer-data gathering it is an outright breach of trust. Until really just a couple of years ago it was customary for focus-group agencies to conduct the screening over the phone, which meant they had to limit the questioning to a handful of questions. Now that they have turned to online vetting of participants they have completely abandoned any semblance of restraint and the screenings more or less resembles focus groups, minus the visuals (“do you prefer the snot green package or the exotic emerald package?”) and minus the compensation.
Again, if you want my honest paid-for opinion as a consumer you have to pay for it. My free opinion as a consumer isn’t that useful: You suck.
