Time To Do Away With Sleazy Checkbox Opt-Outs
from the give-people-a-little-credit dept
We've all seen the practice of somewhat sleazy "opt-out" offerings on things. You sign up to buy something at an e-commerce site and you have to uncheck a box or you'll get bombarded by promotional emails for the rest of your life. However, Jeremy Wagstaff is pointing out one that's even more questionable. Apparently, on a Lenovo page for journalists, it includes two confusing checkboxes. The first says: "Please use e-mail to send me information about other offerings." The second says: "Please do not use this data to send me information about other offerings." They're checkboxes (not radio buttons), meaning that you can check none, one, the other or both... which raises some interesting questions. What happens if you check none or if you check both?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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omguh
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Re: omguh
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I think
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Becoming more noticeable
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Sleazy as this too
the instructions appear at a glance to be a security feature, one last chance to confirm your purchase. But closer inspection reveals it is an opt-out for email spam from them. I fell for it twice, then finally stopped to read it fully the last time.
It is designed in such a way as to trick people into opting into the email list. I did write to complain. Then had to battle for months to get off their catalog mailing list.
They are teaching us they really do not want our business. You don't treat your customers with such a level of disrespect and survive. And all purchases are followed up by spam trying to sell you the extended warranty you didnt order in the first place.
Leroy
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They only do it because...
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You will get exactly as many return emails as you want. So, if you need to get 1 confirmation email, that's all you'll ever get from them.
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Opt Out
80% of all my junk mail is from local businesses who buy my data from the county. Corps who i do business with only get once chance to remove me. If there is a problem, a quick letter to the attorney general quickly resolves the issue. Just ask Quest, they got a letter just this week!
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You could also ask the question; Why do we have to have scumbags breaking into our houses and stealing our stuff?
The answer is; We shouldn't, but scumbags exist and that's why we have locks and guard dogs and guns.
No amount of laws or appeals to reason are going to stop scumbags and that applies to thieves as well as spammers.
Welcome to reality!
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Re: No amount of laws or appeals to reason are goi
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It's nothing.
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Software Vendors Do This Too
Recently I updated my ATI video driver. During the installation process another program requested installation. To me this was a "junk" program so I declined. I was immediately presented with the confusing message that installation was "incomplete".
Software companies must stop this practice of trying to "sneak" in the installation of "junk" software that the customer does not want. The message that ATI should have had "Your Driver download is complete, do you now want to install XXXXXX?"
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The message above is false
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There was a problem with your submission. The following errors occurred:
* You have checked both or neither privacy related checkbox. Please choose one or the other.
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