Privacy Ethics and Affiliate Genealogy Reporting

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I created a report for a client which displays all of the affiliate relationships: who referred who, and who that person then referred, and so on. (It's the first time I've used recursion in years, if not decades, but that part's only relevant to other techies. )

One part that may be important here is that, for this business, most people usually refer friends that they actually know, (but that's not required). This isn't (currently) a dot-com affiliate program setup, where website owners send clicks from people who they typically don't know.

My question here is concerning the next logical step. While the company owner can of course observe all relationships, individual customers usually have a much more limited view of the company data. I'd like to show people a report of their own personal affiliate genealogy, but I'm looking to get your opinion about what amount of information is "right". My hunch is that I would show the customer's friends' names, but not how much business came from each individual friend. I think it's ok to show an aggregated total of all business (which of course then determines the affiliate commission).

What do you think? Is it ok to show names? Individual dollars? Total dollars?

Does your opinion change between first-tier referrals (i.e., one's direct friends) vs. second-tier (i.e., friends of one's friends) vs. even deeper down the relationship chain?

Would your opinion change if this all moved to the Web, where website owners usually have much less information about their visitors?

What data do your current affiliate programs show you (or your affiliates)?

Thanks in advance!
#affiliate #ethics #friend #genealogy #privacy #program #report #reporting
  • Profile picture of the author CynthiaC
    That would all depend on the TOS the affiliates signed.

    I would think that it needs to clear that their personal information can be used by the owner of the company/products for research etc.

    Beyond that you might be treading on some real privacy legal issues.
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    • Profile picture of the author David Beroff
      I well agree. But the (rather long) contract never touches on this subject, so I'm trying to get some more opinions about the ethics.

      It's been a while since I was in this space, but I do recall (as an affiliate) having access as to which specific leads converted to sale, and so on. Similarly, almost all face-to-face salespeople have access to their own sales reports, so as to be able to determine any potential discrepancies.
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  • Profile picture of the author DarioMontesdeOca
    Many of the affiliate programs are set up this way:

    How much you've made/are making and name of who you referred

    If it's a tiered system there's a notification or symbol showing that the person you brought in referred someone else and your account is credited but you don't see the name they brought in.

    This is how I usually see it set up and it makes sense doing it that way.

    Hope this helps David
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    • Profile picture of the author David Beroff
      So, first-tier names ok, but second-tier not. OK; thanks, Dario! Anyone else want to chime in?
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      • Profile picture of the author DarioMontesdeOca
        Originally Posted by David Beroff View Post

        So, first-tier names ok, but second-tier not. OK; thanks, Dario! Anyone else want to chime in?
        Anytime David
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