If you have never heard of the company Epsilon, I’m sure you’re well-aware of it now. Over the weekend, the e-mail marketing company…
- We are the world’s largest permission-based email marketing provider, sending over 40 billion emails annually
- We work with over 2,500 clients, including 7 of the Fortune 10 who trust Epsilon to build and host their customer databases
…experienced a massive data breach.
I don’t know about you, but I received at least 5 different emails, from various companies that have my email address on file, alerting me of said breach. But…not to worry, only my email address has been compromised, or so they say.
What I want to know is…why are all of these prominent companies working with just one email marketing company? In a worst-case scenario situation, coincidentally oddly similar to this one… wouldn’t it be wiser to not hold so many ‘eggs in one basket”? So that if a breach were to occur, the accounts would be limited in number…rather than the possibly millions affected. Also, most curious, how did this happen?
I’m all for eco-friendly…but maybe it’s time we revert back to pen and paper.
Filed under: Business, Marketing, Tech, Epsilon, massive data breach, pen and paper
Maya Reports 
I couldn’t agree more… I’ve gotten 10 of these emails. It’s frightening to consider that one company does all of this emailing. But, with just one security breach, who has the most egg on their face? Epsilon or all the companies that are now having to send the breach emails?
Hi Shannon, thanks for the comment. Yeah, it’s pretty incredible that no one thought ahead…to a ‘what if’ scenario.
I was just talking about this today. I think the problem is that Epsilon is ‘supposedly’ the expert at sending out these mass (and sometimes annoying) emails so they dominate the market and we suffer when there’s a security breach.
And this is another example of why monopolizing an industry is not a good idea. 🙂
Thanks for the comment!
Ashraf Matraw blog…
I have done extensive research on this subject, and agree completely with the way this was written. I only wish I had the eloquence to put it into quality writing. Although unrelated to my blog, worth linking to….