Last night, the Blackhawks played the Calgary Flames. Chicago played lousy, and the food isn't nearly as good as PacBell Park which has sushi and garlic fries, though our waiter at the United Center was awfully cute... but it was a good time.

However, there was one disconcerting moment in digital privacy. The giant center media screens, which are so exciting you tend to watch them more than the rink below (we were in the club level, whatever that means, and so we kind of high up looking down), were straight across. Early on in the game, the announcer and the big flashing screen lights asked people to text message to some phone number, in order to just enter a drawing to win something (I can't even remember it, it was so insignificant). And I thought, well, what are you going to do with my phone number, my information, this date and time stamp, this message that you have recorded from me? Would I really give you this (and possibly more, if you have access to databases to cross my info to put more of the digital me together for a better audience profile) information, in exchange for the chance to win something, with no assurances that what I'm intending the information will be used for will be it? That this personal information won't be sold, traded, aggregated, given to the government or some unscrupulous company wanting to push ads out to phones? Who's taking the info, how do I trust you, what are you like?

I don't mean to sound paranoid, though I'm sure this does sound so, but between that, and the fact that if we'd bought the tickets (they were a gift), the Blackhawk company would have my creditcard info, also with time of entry (they scan the ticket bar code at the door), and I could see with repeated purchases, entry, and various text messages to the folks running the contests, they could really build quite an interesting customer database. As far as I can tell, from the 2pt font warranty on the back of the ticket, which is the only information from the Blackhawk company I could find that wasn't advertising, there is not much available regarding privacy for their audience. And since our privacy laws, with the exception of a few things like taping telephone calls or video rental records, are pretty non-existent, companies like this can mostly do whatever they want, unless they publish a privacy policy, in which case they are required to follow that.

I know it would be really boring for the announcer and the big exciting media screens to serve up a privacy policy during the quick text message contest, but really, we need good privacy policy across the board, so that every company or institution can make customers feel comfortable participating in things that use wireless technologies which could be great audience participation tools, knowing that our information will only be used for the contest, and the Blackhawk's processes to devise better services. Beyond that, they need to think through what it means from our perspective to give up personal information, and design something where we're happy to give it up, because we feel safe. That's good customer service.