Slashdot Mirror
Trade in your Junk Mail for Spam
QueueEhGuy writes "CNN is reporting that the Swedish Postal Service, Posten, is now offering a service where customers can choose to receive spam via a free, government run, service. Business are given the option of using this at a 25% discount from carrier delivered mail. For those of us with physical addresses, it raises an interesting question as to which one is less annoying, environmental benefits aside." Interesting step
towards charging postage for email.
Posten
it's in my head
"INGEN REKLAM TACK"
Thats all you need to stick on your post box or door. You dont get crapmail then. Except kommun (community stuff and real letters etc).
Simple. Works. Nay problemo.
----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
Want to cut down on your physical junk mail? Try this site: http://www.usps.com/websites/depart/inspect/fraud/ GetOffMailingLists.htm. Also offers removal from phone and e-mail lists too. See page for specific details.
SIG: HUP
Uh, we already did that. At least the post office is not supported by tax dollars anymore.
As the price goes up, the service gets worse and worse.
What exactly is your complaint about the Postal Service? I send a letter and it gets just about anywhere in the country in 2-3 days. Can deposit mail in my own mailbox for pickup or in any of thousands of convenient locations around the country. For 37 cents? What's your complaint??
My only complaint is when they do price increases, they should increase to an even 5-cent amount (i.e., 30 cents to 35 cents to 40... None of this 37 cent BS that's just annoying).
The primary purpose for this service is to enable its users to receive, view, and pay their bills in a secure online environment from one trusted location. In addition, patrons of this service can subscribe and opt in to content offerings they are interested in receiving, such as online magazines, newsletters, and marketing offers for which they have expressed an interest.
Posten has paid a great deal of attention to preventing spam in its system by limiting access to mass mailing capabilities to only companies who have paid to participate. Once the companies have paid to participate, they can only send content to their current snail-mail customers or customers who subscribe through the service. Those customers must then enter a subscription key to begin receiving the content.
Canada Post is also offering a similar service using NETdelivery's technology, and it is being well received by its patrons.
Personally, I would be thrilled if the US Postal service would provide such an offering so I could receive and pay my bills online from the one trusted service provider. The only options that are currently available require me to have my bills snail mailed to the provider where they scan the bill (and really, who knows who has access to the paper version of the bill) and present it to me online. I'd also love it because I could eliminate all that paper that goes to the recycle bin, and even limit the information that I see by choosing not to subscribe to it.
It seems a lot of people don't get it.
This isn't about spam. This is about an alternative to dead-tree-based mail. The way the system is built you sign up for what kind of messages you want, and from whom you want them. If you don't want virus-laden, web-bug-ridden breast-enlargement ads, don't sign up for them.
The thing is, this isn't SMTP e-mail. This is a closed messaging system. All messages in the system are digitally signed and authenticated. Sender's can't hide their identities, which means that it's easy for you to refuse mail from any particular sender.
The ISPs don't really enter into it since the service is accessed through the postal service's web servers. There isn't even forwarding (there is notification via regular e-mail).
To sum it up, this is a managed, secure, opt-in service. If you don't like the terms, you don't sign up and it won't cost you a dime. You can hardly expect a better deal than that.