ms-havachat and GDPR - Opt In or Opt Out?

The minute you know you MIGHT be moving to a new country you start researching online - distance between work and potential areas to live in relation to school/s, house availability/affordability, international women's club, supermarkets, doctors, various sports or other interest groups your family enjoy and other helpful websites that will make your landing and transition calm.

When you arrive, new friends share websites with you that they found helpful, and so you go online, check them out and subscribe.

You gather various websites as you go, some are helpful, some are not. Some email you regularly while others are more cyclical. You slowly start to weed out the ones you don't like, and look forward to others.

When you no longer need/rely on them, you may choose to UNSUBSCRIBE to help keep incoming mail under control or just ignore them.  When you know you're about to leave and move onto next adventure you tend to click that unsubscribe option A LOT whittling down the information that's relevant for HERE because you're going to ramp up information for THERE.

Those of you in the EU will be well aware of the GENERAL DATE PROTECTION REGULATION (aka GDPR), is a regulation which the European Commission would like to strengthen and unify date protection for individuals within the EU, as well as personal date which may be exported (ie: shared) outside of the EU.

Interestingly, several friends are responsible for this within their organisations and OMG what a headache it's been. One friend says she is eating, sleeping, breathing GDPR and believes this is only the beginning in as much as it's created and will continue to create an increase in work, and is seriously considering hiring someone purely for the role of GDPR officer (or similar).  Hubby is involved in GDPR for his project with work and again, OMG!

For people like you and me, it's more WHEN DID I SUBSCRIBE TO THAT and WHY???????

My inbox is pinging constantly with newly arrived emails from websites, retailers, online businesses, tourist attractions, hotel chains, airlines, schools, florists, charities and more who have somehow got my email and are asking me to PLEASE STAY CONNECTED. Heck, I don't recall subscribing to half of them!

I bought a gift for a friend in Sydney online (so much easier than buying in UK and posting especially when several parcels have recently gone missing) and suddenly, I am on their mailing list.

ONE enquiry to a travel agent years ago resulted in an email pleading with me to STAY CONNECTED (didn't use them initially, so there's nothing to stay connected for)

Do websites collect emails like some people collect Friends on Facebook? Regardless of the quality of the relationship, please stay.

The surprise for me is that I thought I was on top of this, that I clean up my emails often, and am diligent in unsubscribing but apparently I'm not.

With the May 25 deadline looming, everyone's inbox in the UK is filling up fast with all manner of websites asking you to please stay, you're important to us promising to treat your privacy with the utmost respect and care ....... to which I, and others (hot topic amongst friends these past few weeks) have said WOW, don't recall signing to this one DELETE, or haven't used you for ages DELETE, or the Facebook page offers me the information I need DELETE, or I shopped with you once, DELETE.

I am curious about the retention rates!
Will businesses loose many potential online customers simply because they need to reach out and ask us to OPT IN?
Has the recent hacking situations made us all a bit more wary of who has our information, and so if we don't perceive a full on need, we'll simply chose to OPT OUT til we changed our minds and find the company again?
Has the collective distrust of how our information is handled made us rethink how we use online opportunities?

Be very interesting .............. meanwhile, there's been several more PINGS while writing this chat so I best go check them out and DELETE DELETE DELETE

With friendship
x

PS: Whatever you do PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Online Shopping - gggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

You'll recall I purchased my niece a gift online from a site in Australia to ensure the safe and prompt delivery of the gift for her 13th birthday which was on May 22 as I was nervous good ol' fashioned international mail would let me down.

As I hadn't received a confirmation email, I went to the website and sent an email enquiring where the order might be as no money has been taken out of our account.

No response.

I rang the number on the 'transaction record' and I knew something was odd. The number was a +1 which is USA and not +61 which is Australia. The person who answered the phone didn't speak English.

I started to worry! Hence ONLINE SHOPPING chat earlier.

I then thought I'd email the company of the brand of jewellery I bought as they might (a) have a stockist contact email or phone number or (b) like to know that there might well be a scam going on, using their products which are very well known and positioned at the higher end of the market.

I received a prompt email which read:

Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately we do not have any stockists, online or retail, in Australia.
The email link you sent us is counterfeit.

We are very sorry.

Kind regards 
Customer Care Team


OMG!

$%&*()$%^&*((#$%^&*(

G is following up with our bank to cancel the payment as it still hasn't shown up on our statement (good thing)

I emailed MissS and explained the situation and apologised, assuring her that her gift will be there, next week.

What I wonder tho is HOW does one tell a counterfeit website these days? This one had macfee security logo's and DHL courier logos along with others, it had the PAYPAL, VISA, Mastercard signs etc.

Admittedly when I read the FAQ's and other sections of the website it very quickly raised alarm bells. The language and sentence structures are pathetic to the point of not making any sense at all.

So, after years of shopping online very successfully, I've been duped.

Hopefully, they won't take the money from our account as our bank is super critical of all our online transactions.

Tomorrow I will go to the High Street and buy MissS her gift, and post it registred mail and insure it, so that it's trackable.

I'm feeling rather embarrassed about being duped and angry that MissS has had to wait for her gift.

With friendship
x

Online Shopping

A quick refresher in the history of online shopping before todays' chat.

The first www server and browser was created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990

1994 - online banking started, Pizza Hut launched the first online pizza shop and Netscape did it's thing, and INTERSHOP first online shopping system opened for business.

1995 Amazon.com launched and within months eBay started trading.


We've come a long way in a less than twenty five years.

We really started online shopping jus before MissM was born. I discovered how simple and easy sitting in my pj's and doing the weekly shop was and haven't looked back. We used eBay for the first time when we were selling stuff just before moving to Dublin.

I took the most creative photos possible of furniture, we diligently measured every possible length, height, depth, angle so as not to give false information, we were honest about the quality of the item and spent ages over the copy before uploading it to the 'net' and waiting for offers to flood in.

In those days, everyone was buying/selling on eBay. It became a popular past time, especially when you were in a bidding war to buy something or indeed, you were anxiously waiting to see what the highest bid would be if you were selling.

What's funny odd (not funny haha) is how many people around the world still don't have access to the www, or internet shopping. Ireland for example (at least when we were there five years ago) wasn't happening to the extent Australia was.

It was just too hard in Japan. You could access English websites, but the challenge came when placing a successful order, as more often than not, the things you wanted were 'unable to be shipped'. That, and lack of English books was the main reason many of us ended up with Kindles (bought when on holidays) as a means of keeping up with book club.

Many expats ask family and friends when visiting to bring over things - we like Areoplane Jelly, Twisties and Cheezels, while MrsS asks for simple things like underpants for her boys, English books and games. Friends living in China are happy to receive anything!

We do LOTS of online shopping here. In fact, maybe too much, which is odd in many ways as we're surrounded by English, and clothes/shoes that fit.

Anyone living overseas who need to send gifts 'home' (where ever that might be) have a few issues to contend with.

• international postage is expensive 
• international postage can be unreliable (in that it can take weeks or months for no reason to get from A - B; or not be delivered at all)
• you tend to buy light weight, flat items that are easy to post
• never seldom, if ever, send delicate, breakable items no matter how well wrapped they may be
• you don't want recipients having to pay import taxes, or sales taxes (we've had to do that a few times with things sent to us)
• items go missing between A and B (MrsB sent us a small photo album when we were in Dublin and it's never turned up there, or been returned despite being clearly addressed To and From; a Christmas parcel addressed to my brother came back to me with a 'address unknown' sticker on it)
• ensuring recipient is home to sign for parcels can be an issue (I tend to send stuff to their workplace)
• knowing recipient has a letter box to receive the size of parcel you are sending (how many big letter boxes do you see?)
• If anyone has anymore issues please add them!

Over the years, we've realised there's a few solutions to gift giving/sending. Either deposit money into family or friends account and ask them to shop/wrap/deliver gift OR, shop online on a domestic website (for example, i shop on .com.au for Australia, or .com.ie for Ireland)

Having been doing this online, international shopping for several years now, here's a few of my favourites:

flowersforeveryone.com.au has been my 'local' florist never disappoint. They deliver stunning flowers, on time and the recipients always comment on the displays and how long the flowers last.

When Peters of Kensington went online, Sydney-siders living anywhere but Sydney celebrated! In fact, at Christmas and leading up to Mothers Day, even Sydney-siders prefer shopping online here as the shop itself has lines of people waiting to get inside. The store is amazing, and the prices are very competitive. Having the opportunity to buy online, and have gifts wrapped and delivered was and still is an incredible benefit.

When in doubt, a voucher from Westfields is always a hit. I have had to overcome my aversion to gift vouchers, just.

pumpkinpatch.co.com has dressed MissM for years. They are such fun fashion, and the site is so very reliable.

Naturally, amazon is still and always will be a favorite; not just for books either these days.

Photo albums are done at mypublisher or via apple mac programs, and delivered directly to grandparents.

There are loads more, and you've got your favourites.

When we know we're coming for a visit, it's great to pop online to the supermarkets and place an order and have it delivered to the apartment.

Today's chat started because my niece still hasn't received her birthday gift which I bought online last week, in Australia to save the potential drama's of missing international post. I knew exactly what I wanted to get her for her 13th birthday, and could have bought it here and posted it, but thought no, local delivery would be best. I didn't want to hassle mum, or anyone else, so went online, found a stockist and placed my order.

The issue is that for the first time I think I've bought off a shonky website. They have sent thru a transaction number, but no confirmation of the order/payment; the payment isn't showing up on our bank statement either ...... I've emailed them but had no response. I've phoned but the number is in America and answered by a non English speaker.

MissS is very understanding, but that's not the point.

I'm debating whether to wait (and if so, for how long) before sending her something else.

I'm so angry that I got duped after all these years! The fact that MissS is the one to have been affected is heartbreaking.


What would you do?
Have you been duped by online shopping?
What are your favourite sites?


With friendship
x