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Sh!t that Annoys me Wednesday 8-24-2011

I often wonder if this must stuff annoys other people, or if I just have a low threshhold for idiocy. At any rate, here's your weekly dose of what is annoying me.

Artfire. Ah, you've probably been seeing this bit of fuckery elsewhere on teh iterwebz, or perhaps you were one of the lucky ones that received an email fromAartfire indicating that your address was released to who knows how many strangers. Sure, I'm annoyed that this even occurred, it is unacceptable for private customer data of any kind to be released, but shit happens and it's how the company handles the issue that becomes important. Artfire has handled this situation extremely poorly. First, Tony. Tony is the person on th Artfire forums fielding things as basically the voice of Artfire. Hey Artfire, your representative is a douche. In the email I received from Artfire, it indicated that hundreds were affected. Yesterday, in the forums, he indicated that thousands received the email.

Additionally, this statement:

"In the meantime, some people were doing facebook and blog posts that not only exaggerated the extent of the problem and described it as a "security breach" (which is a very volatile term and should be applied precisely-- this was not a "security breach"), but needlessly alarmed people who had not been affected"

From Tony regarding Facebook & blog posts about the incident truly indicates that Artfire does not take this situation seriously.

Personally, I feel having my private address released to an unknown number of strangers is a security breach, I wonder how serious it needs to be before Artfire considers it a security breach. Also the fact that someone else received shipping notification for a package from a store they had never heard of and another artfire user found items in her cart from a shop she had never shopped or even heard of indicates that the issue was far deeper than just a few addresses being released. In addition, with both orders I made on Friday (I had to make 2 with the same seller to complete my order, as the cart kept deleting items) I had to manually enter my address into Artfire, so while Artfire didn't save my address in the system for me to make orders, it sure as shit saved my address for others to see.

Furthermore, Tony posted the following in the forums:

People who saw different info were not the affected parties. It is the shipping info owner who was affected, so they were the group we emailed to. More specifically, because we could not determine fully who exactly comprised the group, we emailed people ranging from 24 hours before it was reported to well after it was patched. For those who feel a public statement should be made, I would assert that doing such a thing is irresponsible. It is correct and responsible to notify and apologize to the parties affected, which we did. This is standard industry practice in marketplaces and even in banking and medical fields.
It would be irresponsible to create uncertainty for the remaining 99% of shoppers who can not possibly be affected. Doing so increases shopper uncertainty. Uncertainty reduces sales. That is a negative outcome for our sellers.
At the end of the day I have a responsibility to our sellers. This includes a responsibility to fix the issue as quickly as possible once we were aware of it, a responsibility to contact those affected and apologize in a way that makes it clear the sellers were not at fault and a responsibility to minimize the uncertainty impact on unaffected shoppers.
I would rather take some heat from some who disagree with how we handle public notification than avoid that criticism by taking the money out of our seller's pockets.
Thanks.

Since Tony feels that Artfire doesn't need to make a public statement, I will, at least to my 85 loyal readers.

This is not the way to handle people who are concerned about their security. There is a huge difference between minimizing an issue and diffusing a situation and Tony has only fueled the flames and escalated issue with his incredibly poor attitude toward customer information safety.

Second, Artfire isn't protecting the profits of its sellers by not releasing a public statement, Artfire is protecting Artfire's profits. If customers don't feel safe, they don't shop. Sellers who don't make money can't pay Artfire. Also, sellers who were thinking of using Artfire may be less inclined to do so (and therefore Artfire will lose money) if Artfire makes a public statement.

I'm not encouraging that people stop using Artfire. I am encouraging Artfire FIRE THIS DOUCHE AND HIRE PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO HANDLE SITUATIONS WITHOUT BEING CONDECENDING ASSHOLES!

I'm actually more offended by how Tony feels this isn't an issue that his statements are just one step away from calling us all a bunch of silly hysterical women than I am about the actual breach. As I said, shit happens, and it's how the company diffuses the situation.

Artfire's grade on this issue: F.

I want a fucking apology email from Artfire about their crappy employee & their non-statement.

For more detail on the Artfire Hysteria of 2011 that is less annoyance-charged, check out these blog posts:
Cupcake's Quirky Corner

Le Gothique

Other things are annoying me, but I've shot my wad for this week.