After all of the harping we’ve done regarding online privacy, corporate privacy, and just day to day Keeping Your Stuff to Yourself, this story is particularly galling—or at least, it should be.  Especially if you’re in the “it’s no big deal if everyone spies on my affairs” camp.  One would hope you people have limits to the level of invasion you’ll allow.

A guy named Mike Seay got an ad in the mail from Officemax recently.  We all get them.  This one, however, was addressed to “Mike Seay, Daughter Killed In Car Crash.”  The worst part?  Seay’s daughter was actually killed in a car accident last year.  How did Officemax know that?  More importantly, in what universe would it be okay to use that information in an ad campaign?  “Well, that’s marketing,” you might say.  No, that’s ghoulish, creepy, overreaching invasion of everything we hold dear in terms of privacy.  That’s pathetic.

Before you think that’s acceptable conduct, let me offer this tidbit.  How about we go get a list of all the Gold Star families who have lost a son in Afghanistan or Iraq and send them some ads for printers, addressed to “Son Blown Up or Shot”?  Seriously?