Southwest Is Asking Really Nicely If They Can Spy On You, Just A Little

I don’t fly Southwest much but I am on the Rapid Rewards (their loyalty program) e-mail distribution list. I try to read as much of that sort of stuff as possible as I’ve discovered some pretty good random deals in e-mails and newsletters. Admittedly, it took me a month to notice this targeted offer for Hilton HHonors Diamond status.

I noticed a little snippet placed in a fairly prominent spot for customers to see in the recent newsletter. They’re asking for your Twitter handle so you can help them “stay connected”.

I wonder how many folks will plug it in. It’s great knowledge for Southwest if they can mine your social media feeds. They can likely catch complaints early and also may be able to use other data to better understand how to market to you. There are already programs that harvest social media data and make suggestions to folks related to their interests, so this isn’t exactly ground-breaking.

But, I don’t think I’m giving them my Twitter handle, especially after they removed a family from a flight for Tweeting about bad service earlier this year.