Topic: Direct Marketing

At the retail store, a long line of questions at checkout

Retail stores are increasingly barraging their customers with questions. It's marketing for them. Is it good for you?

Epsilon security breach: 5 signs it's only the tip of the iceberg

This week millions of e-mail addresses were reported stolen from Epsilon, a firm that supplies e-mail marketing to BestBuy, Disney, and many others. Here are five more emerging targets for precision attacks:

Do Not Track list for Web marketing proposed by the FTC

Do Not Track list: The proposal, modeled after the government's existing Do Not Call List for telemarketers, is one of a series of recommendations outlined in a new privacy report released Wednesday by the Federal Trade Commission.

Online coupons: Four ways you can save money online

Online coupons are shaking up the advertising industry, according to a new report from Borrell Associates. The local ad research and consulting firm in Williamsburg, Va., forecasts the online coupons business will grow almost 14 percent in 2011, reaching $9.1 billion. That's still small compared with an overall ad market forecast at $238.6 billion. But its fast growth portends big changes in the way you get your coupons and, ultimately, how you shop. Here are four strategies to take advantage now of the expected flurry of online coupons:

Private eyes are watching you (surf the Web)

Commercial tracking software often secretly records where users go on the Internet. If businesses don't set their own clear, simple privacy standards, government may need to step in with a 'do not track' option.

Telemarketing 'robocalls' will be history on Sept. 1, mostly

Exceptions include charities, surveys, and information about canceled flights. But most telemarketers will need your permission before calling.

Etc.

EarthTalk: Can we do without telephone books?

Internet makes them obsolete, say some. So how do you keep all that paper from being delivered to your home?

Americans hail a postman's junk-mail jihad

Numerous groups try to trim the burden of 100 billion pieces of mail a year.