Canvassing

 

Image from Pixabay

Colporteur is, at least in Dutch, such a nice old-fashioned word that, if you don't know it, could easily let you think of criminal activities. At least, that's how it sounds to me. But no: in principle, canvassing (as it’s known in a broader sense) is a venerable activity, in which the practitioner visits houses to sell a product or service. The Dutch dictionary cites the encyclopedia colporteur and the vacuum cleaner colporteur as (probably extinct) examples. The energy salesperson mentioned there, however, is very much alive and doesn’t always adhere to high standards. Once such a person presented himself as a representative of 'the energy company', thus suggesting that I was already a customer of his company.

At our doorbell, there is a modest sign that reads: “TIP – We only buy things and services that we have asked for ourselves.” That stops most canvassers from ringing the doorbell. And sellers, who have the audacity to do so anyway, will be kindly asked if they may have missed the sign. A few will lie that they don't want to sell anything at all, but most of them drop off while stammering apologies.

In the past – before the pandemic – in the weeks after participating in a conference or visiting a trade fair you were often called by companies that tried to monetize your visit. Today, that activity seems to be disconnected from any event. What is particularly striking is that I receive calls from Dutch landlines by English-speaking employees of  companies in my industry, who want to pitch their products or services or organize an informative meeting. I always brush them off saying that I am not the one who deals with suppliers and that they are wasting their and my time talking to me. And when they ask who they should contact, they are told that I am not allowed to provide that information.

Come on, if you really work for that company (they're always companies I've at least heard of), then you're also able to find the right point of entrance . You don't have to scour LinkedIn profiles looking for interesting prey. Because in some of these contact attempts, which also often take place via e-mail, I clearly recognize elements from my LinkedIn profile. I just tightened that profile. For years now it said that you can only become friends if you have met me before in real life or if you are a colleague. Now I have explicitly added that I will decline the invitation if I don’t know you, and the reason for this is also stated: LinkedIn is often used for phishing. Those people first want to make a connection, and then they subtly hear you out. They may not even be interested in you, but in your contacts. Or they use the connection with you to make a good impression with their real target: if someone sends you an invitation, LinkedIn very usefully lists which contacts you have in common with the newcomer. That can give you the (sometimes false) feeling that someone is trustworthy.

Often I receive contact attempts like this: “Hi Patrick, I'm working with Senior IT leaders on a Private Online Roundtable surrounding Security, IoT and Transformation to name a couple of topics. Our directors would love your expertise, I would like to offer you a complimentary invitation to join us in June! Can I send the agenda please?” The message is intended to make you feel important: Senior IT leaders, Private Roundtable, our directors. The young lady who sent me this invitation from London has this position mentioned in her profile: Connecting IT Leaders together across the Benelux region. Invitations like “You and I both work in information security, shall we link?” are also very common. And a very good 90 percent of all these contact attempts will just be legitimate, I have no doubt about that. But in order to keep that faction of possible wrong contacts out, and because I have little to gain from them, I reject those. With this I not only protect myself, but also my contacts. And more people should do that.

A few people have just received a contact request from me. Because while I was looking at the incoming contact requests, LinkedIn also showed a lot of people “that you may know”. When you scroll through that, you sometimes involuntarily think: “Hey, are we not connected yet?”

This blog post has been translated from Dutch to English by Google and edited by the author.

 

 And in the big bad world…

This section contains a selection of news articles I came across in the past week. Because the original version of this blog post is aimed at readers in the Netherlands, it contains some links to articles in Dutch. Where no language is indicated, the article is in English.

• malware can now be detected using electromagnetic waves.
• a researcher discovered a serious vulnerability in Linux, which also affects Android.
• the police arrested eight (!) young people for defrauding an elderly person through bank help desk fraud. [IN DUTCH]
• Ukrainian hackers only attack military targets in Russia, they say.
• smart speakers can, of course, be hacked, which also makes other devices and services vulnerable.
• the government wants to issue digital passports once again. [IN DUTCH]
• new cars get a few mandatory gadgets that come with privacy concerns. [IN DUTCH]
• Parliamentary questions are also asked in response to the privacy report on Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint. [IN DUTCH]
• Many websites follow you without using cookies. [IN DUTCH]
• You can now read why the antivirus software from the Russian company Kaspersky Lab was banned by the Dutch government in 2018. [IN DUTCH]