The Siren Call of Television

Matt from ABCNews 40 called, wanting us to come on and speak about Internet issues. It is always fun to oblige, but by this time I did ask to be on at 5:30 pm and not earlier. The subject is a new website called zoominfo.com and its ramifications for internet privacy.

I called the company and was surprised to actually get their PR chief on the phone. Brian Payea said from their Cambridge Headquarters, that there is nothing sinister about the idea. “We just provide the same info you can find if you did a Google search for yourself, but we do it faster and gather it all in 18 categories for you.

That is for the paying customers, who buy the “Enterprise version” of the software for $12,000 per year and up. He said 20 % of the Fortune 500 have ponied up to avail themselves of the service. They use it to locate new executives or hard to find software engineers. “they can search for somebody who fits their hiring criteria,” Payea said, “and also for due diligence if they are trying to buy a company.

Watch for me tonight on the 5:30 news on Channel 40, Springfield.