In Acquisition, JotSpot Gets The Little Thing Right

After Google bought JotSpot, a collaboration software and service provider, today, JotSpot sent a note out to its users announcing the change and explaining how the Google server farms and culture will make the service better. JotSpot did one other thing -- they offered their users the chance not to have their data, which can be anything from a collaboratively edited family site to a small business's internal communication hub, sent to Google and offered to help them export it if they like.

The email said:

Your data is yours — that doesn't change at Google. We will continue to work to ensure the privacy and security of your data. Furthermore, Google is as committed to privacy and security as we are. Since the user information you provided to JotSpot will soon be transferred to Google as part of their acquisition of JotSpot, we want to provide you with the opportunity to retrieve your user information and cease usage of the JotSpot service before the transition. If you do not wish to continue using JotSpot, send an email to [email protected] in the next sixty days and we will reply with instructions for retrieving your user information.

Probably few of their customers will take the company up on the offer, and possibly fewer than if JotSpot hadn't mentioned the policy. But even if the disclosure was good business practice (keeping customers by telling them they can leave and take their data), it was also the right thing to do.

I've been a fan of JotSpot for a while and ocassionally get to sit down with their CEO Joe Kraus to pick his brain on what he thinks is going on in Silicon Valley, so I'm happy to offer my congratulations to him and to his company on their acquisition and announcement. Stay classy, JotSpot (no, really).

Photo: x180