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World Privacy Forum's Top Ten Opt-Outs
Ant writes in to mention the World Privacy Forum's top ten information collector/user list, which shows opt-out instructions (or at least a starting point): "As privacy experts, we are frequently asked about 'opting out,' and which opt outs we think are the most important. This list is a distillation of ideas for opting out that the World Privacy Forum has developed over the years from responding to those questions. ... Many people have told us that they think opting out is confusing. We agree. Opting out can range from the not-too-difficult (the FTC's Do Not Call list is a fairly simple opt out) to the challenging (the National Advertising Initiative (NAI) opt out can be tricky). Our hope is that this list will clarify which opt out does what, and how to go about opting out. In this list, some opt outs can be done by phone, some have to be sent in a letter via postal mail, and some can be accomplished online. Some opt outs last forever, some have time limits, and others can be changed at will. If an opt out is on this list, it is because we thought it might be important enough to be worth whatever annoyance it may pose. "
How about making everything in the world an opt-in by default?
For example, I don't recall announcing that I want telemarketers to call me, so why should I have to opt-out?
Advice: on VPS providers
Face it, the types of emails that you want to opt out from are exactly the ones that do not honor opt-out lists.
Remember when you first tried to ride a bike and your dad pushed you so hard that you fell over and skinned your knees and bloodied your nose? This is like taking that swing at him that you always wanted to. Unfortunately at that age, no matter what you do, he wasn't ever affected by your little attacks and rants.
The disrespect that advertisers pay to their targets works well for them as it is believed that it boosts their viewership and of course the viewers who are most likely to buy and spend are unaware of or don't care that they are being disrespected.
I have little doubt that if people could get sales by knocking on your door and punching you in the face to make a sale, they would do exactly that. They don't care about the harm they cause.
For something from the World Privacy Forum it didn't really give much info for people that don't live in the US.
There's only one true opt-out... and it's at the receiver's end.
This is really possible only if I created a unique, unguessable email address each time I gave my email out.
This is not as impossible as you think. For instance, Gmail supports the "+arbitrary_tag" convention. So email sent to:
example+listserv1@gmail.com
example+bank1@gmail.com
example+dad@gmail.com
-- all shows up in the Gmail inbox of 'example@gmail.com'.
If you started getting spam at one of the 'example+...@gmail.com', you can guess who gave your address out.
See: http://alblue.blogspot.com/2007/05/multiple-addresses-with-gmail.html
Note, Gmail's convention leaves out the 'unguessable' bit of this idea out - so spammers can easily build rules to harvest real addresses from gmail addresses containing a '+' sign.
An easy solution for me is to change my phone number often. Problem solved.
Using opt-in saves you the cost of marketing to people who don't want your stuff, saves you the cost of storing data about them, and saves you from the negative word-of-mouth opt-out causes.
I've run opt-in marketing campaigns, and have converted multiple employers from opt-out to opt-in. Before the switch, every mailout would result in an inbox full of complaints and threats. After the switch to opt-in, people would actually mail us asking where the ads were, if we were late.
I'll take opt-in over opt-out any day.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Opt out of everything! Encrypt everything! Privacy is supreme! Oh wait...except you make yourself a bit of a target by being part of that tiny percent that actually gives a shit about that kind of stuff. I agree that privacy is important. I agree that some things should not be so easily made public information. I agree that advertising is irritating as hell. However, making yourself relatively unique by fighting so hard to stay "under the radar" actually makes you stand out as one of the few that actually are totally concerned about it. The unfortunate reality is MANY people believe "If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear" and the "they" rely on that behavior to find the "suspect" people.
.5g per serving? Who the fuck eats 1 cookie as a serving? Eat 2 cookies and you get ~1g of trans fat...5g of which per week increases your heart attack risk by ~25%). I am more than happy to provide that information to the marketeers because I want them to know I don't want that bullshit in my cupboards! How else do you plan to send a strong message with your dollar? Make sure they pay attention to your dollar!
Let us break this down in a way that I suspect all "geeks" and whatnot can understand. Do you spend much time investigating the events/items that meet your expectations of "normal"? Or are you more interested in the "odd" result? How much time do you really dedicate to fixing a Windows glitch vs how many time you just write it off to "Yeah, typical Windows behavior". Compare that to how many times you investigate into a *nix type glitch where the norm is to behave in exactly the same fashion every time unless some odd and relatively easily discoverable condition occurs...
The very act of struggling so hard to make yourself completely anonymous and "off the radar" makes you a high visibility target. I often see people go on about how they refuse to use discount cards and so on... WHY?! Seriously...is your hot dog and milk buying patterns so fucking important to your privacy? If you are really buying something "suspect" or "interesting" then don't use the card. Fuck, I actively check costs and ingredients in shit because I am concerned about what I am paying and what I am eating. What better way to "vote with your dollar" then to send a nice "I am not buying this fucking garbage" message every time you check out? I don't buy shit with aspertame, I don't buy shit with partially hydroginated bullshit (did you know they can legally claim 0 trans fat by making it less than
Put yourself in "their" shoes. Who stands out more...the guy trying to mind his own business in the large crowd of other people who are generally just trying to mind their own business or the guy who is sneaking with sticks strapped on all over trying to look like a shrub. "They" employ a great number of very intelligent people more interested in solving puzzles than being "bad guys" to weed out those strange responses. It is an interesting challenge in human behavior.
Seriously...hiding every aspect of your life makes you more suspect. I think the notion of making every aspect of your life public voluntarily through myspace/facebook/twitter/whatever is absolutely moronic in the extreme, but trying to hide every aspect is the same thing. Unless you are looking for pedophilia, necrophilia, beastiality, or some other pretty universally questionable porn...you probably stand out more as "I don't ever look at porn" rather than "I like *XYZ* kind of porn".
The biggest violators of "privacy" are in it to make money, not to be evil dictators. They are going to dig into your information whether you like it or not. Provide them information that sends a clear message of what you want and they will most certainly meet your demands to continue making money! Every time some telemarketer calls me with some survey I am HAPPY to spend 5-10 minutes of my day answering their questions. You cannot even begin to imagine my amusement when they start asking about how much TV I
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.