A few weeks ago I got this email from Myssie:
My nursling is 8 months old, this morning we went out get the mail and found a large box from Similac. There were various coupons and two cans of formula. All welcoming me to the "strong mother's club" for mother's to be.
I called the customer service to remove my name from their lists and the agent told me that my info was sold to them by another company or hospital program (my daughter was born at home so it wasn't a hospital, I can't believe that happens!)
I would like to complain further as I feel my telephone complaint won't go very far. Do you have any information as to where I can send a letter or call that would have the most impact?
I'll be writing a post soon about how you can respond when this happens, but for now I have another idea.
I contacted Marsha Walker to find out what she knows about how formula companies get our information. She said that any baby or maternity store where a mother uses a credit card could sell her personal information. Hospitals themselves cannot share information, but vendors operating in hospitals such as newborn photography companies can collect and sell personal information. In fact, one photography company was recently found doing exactly that. She also said that birth records are public information and companies can use them for their promotions.
When I was pregnant and was thinking about ordering a maternity shirt from Old Navy, I called to ask if they share customer information with formula companies. This was their response:
Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding Old Navy's use of our customer's personal information. Gap, Inc. prides itself on being a responsible corporate citizen and part of this commitment is recognizing that we must maintain and use customer information responsibly. Although we may use customer information for marketing and promotional purposes within our family of brands, we never sell this information to any outside company or third party.
But obviously some stores which sell baby and maternity products do share or sell our information, and I thought it would be a good idea to shine a light on them.
Want to help me do that? Here's what I propose:
1) I'll create a list of the larger baby and maternity retailers below. I will inevitably miss some, so feel free to add to it.
2) If you're willing to write a quick email to one or more, leave a comment telling us that you're doing it. This way we won't have several people asking the same question.
3) You contact by email, please, one or more of the companies below asking, "Does your company sell or share customer information with companies that sell formula, or their parent companies?" The wording is important here.
4) When you hear back from them, post their response in the comments section.
Here's my proposed list. Feel free to add.
- Old Navy/Gap/Banana Republic
- Babies R Us/Toys R Us
- Baby Depot
- Target
- Walmart
- Motherhood Maternity
- Destination Maternity/Pea in the Pod
- Add your own, please!
What do you think? Anyone in?
Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog? Subscribe here. Want an RSS feed? Subscribe here. Want to subscribe to our breastfeeding podcasts on iTunes? Click here.
