It’s never a good thing to get an email like the following, which in this case came from Hilton Honors — which is connected to my American Express card, and which evidently doesn’t follow AP style:

Dear Customer:

We were notified by our database marketing vendor, Epsilon, that we are among a group of companies affected by a data breach. How will this affect you? The company was advised by Epsilon that the files accessed did not include any customer financial information, and Epsilon has stressed that the only information accessed was names and e-mail addresses. The most likely impact, if any, would be receipt of unwanted e-mails. We are not aware at this time of any unsolicited e-mails (spam) that are related, but as a precaution, we want to remind you of a couple of tips that should always be followed:

• Do not open e-mails from senders you do not know

• Do not share personal information via e-mail

Hilton Worldwide, its brands and loyalty program will never ask you to e-mail personal information such as credit card numbers or social security numbers. You should be cautious of “phishing” e-mails, where the sender tries to trick the recipient into disclosing confidential or personal information. If you receive such a request, it did not come from Hilton Worldwide, its brands or its loyalty program. If you receive this type of request you should not respond to it but rather notify us at fraud_alert@hilton.com.

As always, we greatly value your business and loyalty, and take this matter very seriously. Data privacy is a critical focus for us, and we will continue to work to ensure that all appropriate measures are taken to protect your personal information from unauthorized access.

About two minutes after I created this post, I received the following email from Target:

To our valued guests,

Target’s email service provider, Epsilon, recently informed us that their data system was exposed to unauthorized entry. As a result, your email address may have been accessed by an unauthorized party. Epsilon took immediate action to close the vulnerability and notified law enforcement.

We sincerely regret that this incident occurred. Target takes information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that all appropriate measures are taken to protect personal information. Please contact Guest.Relations@target.com should you have any additional questions.

We can all expect to be peppered with similar emails from various companies over the next day or two.

PC World reports on what you need to know about all this. And hey — HEY:

Let’s be careful out there.

Yesterday’s post about the Golden Rule of Online Interaction got me to thinking about the Three Golden Rules of Business. I don’t know if anyone else calls them that, but I do and they’ve served me and others well over the years.

Since this is the time of year when speakers are polishing up their commencement speeches, I think most of them could do a lot worse than to impress these three simple but vital principles on everyone with a mortarboard:

1. Treat everyone well. That means everyone, not just your boss and your peers, but the secretaries and the janitors and everyone in between. Not only is it basic human decency, but you may need something from that secretary or janitor someday.

2. Never burn a bridge. If you’re leaving one department or company to join another, leave on good terms. That person you set flame to tomorrow may be in a position to hire or fire you a year or three from now. Bite your tongue, leave with a smile … then let loose with a few primal screams in the car on the drive home.

3. Tip the dealer. When someone does you an extra-special solid (do people even use that phrase anymore?), acknowledge it. A small gift, or even just a thank you card, sets you head and shoulders above 99 percent of everyone else out there.

My dad used to have a piece of business advice he shared occasionally: “Never give a sucker an even break — and when he’s down, kick him.” I suppose that might work in certain situations, but by and large I think the three principles above are pretty good rudders to help anyone, young or old, steer through the murky whitewater of the working world.

HuffPo reports on a first-grade teacher suspended for making derogatory comments about her kids on Facebook.

Even after all this time, too many people simply do not understand the Golden Rule of Online Interaction: Never — NEVER — put anything online that you wouldn’t want your mother to see, or you wouldn’t want splashed onto the biggest billboard in Times Square. Follow that rule of thumb, you’ll be just fine.

Nope. Lies, damned lies and statistics does the math.

Takeaway for marketers: Never take the numbers at face value, particularly when it comes to anything online.

“A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”
—Douglas Adams