Risk of Using Online Coupon Sites

Online coupon sites have proven tremendously helpful to billions for many years. Before the inception of the internet, people would have to spend countless hours shuffling through newspapers and catalogues for the best deals and coupons for their desired stores. This would be a weekly event for many families, causing not only needless headaches and paper cuts, but oftentimes frustration (having to pay attention to dozens of different expiration dates can be quite cumbersome at times). The solution? Online coupon sites. Search engines are some of the most useful inventions of our time, and now couponing has become as easy as a five second search and quick print job.

Obviously there must be some downsides hiding around here somewhere. Nothing in life is truly free, especially concerning coupon sites. The following guide will help inform you of the potential dangers of utilising these sites.

Personal Information Risk

Arguably, the most significant risk posed by these sites is that of the exposure of your personal information. Everything from your address, financial info, mobile phone number, shopping habits, etc….are required by some of these sites. Many of them offer access to their coupons free of charge, and you should beware any site that charges a small monthly fee, regardless of the quality or quantity of coupons they’re offering.

You may not think it’s a big deal if these companies are closely watching your every move—what coupons you’re searching for, which ones you actually print up, etc.—but the market research performed on unsuspecting consumers is astonishing at times. Did you know that these companies continue to track you all the way to the brick and mortar establishment where you use the coupon? Not only that, but they are keeping close tabs on your shopping and spending habits so that they may easily send you targeted coupon deals in the future. This leads to our next area of concern…

Spam

Once a coupon site finds out that you bought a book or item of clothing with one of their coupons, they’re going to continue sending you more coupons like the one you used. Why not? After all, by their statistical standards, you are more likely to engage in their couponing process more than once. Once they discover which store you frequent on a regular basis, you’re bound to get more advertisements and coupons from this company, courtesy of the coupon site you were using. This may not be too bad initially, but some people dislike getting their mailboxes full of spam emails, which is exactly what could happen if you divulge too much personal information on a coupon website.

Invasion of the Third Parties

If you still decide to go ahead and use a coupon site, be sure they have some sort of privacy policy in place to protect you against third party information sales. Some unscrupulous websites will readily sell your personal information to third parties, which will not only double the amount of junk mail in your email box, but disperse your information more freely across the web. Security is a prime concern of many internet users today; don’t fall prey to a site that won’t respect your privacy and keep your entered private information secured in their databases.

Coupon sites can be great places to find a deal on your favourite items, be it clothing, food, or cinema tickets. However, while browsing through their various deals, make sure you keep a lock on your personal information to prevent an onslaught of spam and third party solicitations in the future.