Gap Archive

By now we all know that the new valley darling is Foursquare. Will Foursquare be the next breakout startup? Only time (and lots of pumping blog posts from a few new reporters) will tell. Before I continue let me state that I very much believe in location-based services. I wrote the business documentation and code for a location-based concept during my MBA studies in 2004. And I think there is an amazing future for services that are based around location — especially as mobile devices become smarter.

Last week, the Gap ran a promotion where users who “check-in” at a Gap store received a 25% discount on their purchases. All of the foursquare bloggers ran posts explaining how this demonstrates the power of Foursquare. Of course the discount was also available to basically anyone using a code.

One of the interesting elements to online couponing that many seem to miss in every post is that the deal sites are the ones who pump the coupons and make them a success. For example, a deal on Twitter’s earlybird deal account, will be pumped through sites like Fatwallet and Slickdeals and users of both of these sites will never see or use the earlybird account. The same goes for “Twitter-only” deals from Dell Outlet and Virgin America.
Continue reading “Groupon Teaches You Why Coupons Are Better Than Checkins For Deals” »

Better watch out next time you walk into a Gap Store, your data might not be safe. A report out this morning says that the data for 800,000 job applicants on an unencrypted laptop was stolen. The laptop was from a 3rd party provider the Gap hired to manage job applicant information.

And they setup a Web site where job applicants can go to get information. Yet again, not even a freaking apology. Not a, "We’re sorry this has happened and here is what we are doing to prevent this" instead "go monitor your stuff and we might help if you get your identity stolen". LAME.

Larry Dignan notes, "With any luck, Gap will go with its other vendors that can secure laptops. It’s bewildering given all of the stolen laptop incidents that data still goes unencrypted."

I still do not understand why this is allowed and why the government isn’t doing more to punish companies and employees who lose our data. The issue is that while the thief may have the data today, they may not use it or sell the data for a year – way past when Gap would even help.