Some recipients may feel irritated by an unwelcome reminder of an even more unwelcome milestone. Others may be excited at the prospect of Comfort Inn discounts. And some – you know who you are – are AARP haters who post scathing comments on blogs if the group is mentioned even peripherally in an article.

Then there are those people who just want to know how the organization ferrets out information that many might go to considerable lengths to conceal.

“Some people are shocked that our membership letter hits their mailbox on their exact birthday,” Lynn Mento, an AARP senior vice president, said by e-mail. “For some people who aren’t comfortable yet with turning 50, it can be seen as a bit of a ‘downer,’ but for millions of people, they’re excited about being able to take advantage of our benefits.”

The organization says it amasses birthdates from “companies that specialize in providing information to direct marketers.” Those companies, it says, gather information from a variety of sources to which people provide personal information on things like product warranties and sweepstakes forms.

When AARP learns that someone is turning 50, it sends a letter as close to the birthday as possible. It may then send five to eight follow-up letters that year, it says. The nonprofit group, which advocates on issues affecting older Americans and markets services to members, claims to have signed up more than 37 million people at a cost of $16 a year.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer advocacy group based in San Diego, noted that AARP is doing nothing illegal or even uncommon — though the group may be far more adept at it than other businesses. But that doesn’t mean people on the receiving end of those letters have to like it.

“Different people have different sensitivities,” said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy for the clearinghouse. “I think for a lot of people, age is something that they are very sensitive about. It’s something that they’d prefer not to be publicly available.”

Ms. Mento noted that all the information was there for the taking. “The data we – and all direct marketers in the U.S. – purchase from these companies doesn’t carry any privacy issues at all with it,” she said.

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Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/booming/how-aarp-learns-peoples-birthdays.html?partner=rss&emc=rss