opt-out
Have you ever made a purchase on the crafty marketplace, Etsy? If you have, consider checking your privacy settings, since the site is beginning to have more in common with Facebook than an old-fashioned online bazaar. The company behind the site managed to annoy sellers, buyers, and more or less the entire Internet by changing its privacy policy earlier this year.
The changes allow users to search for their friends and marginal acquaintances' Etsy usernames and feedback histories by e-mail address. Not all that different from most social networking sites... but most people who sign up to use Etsy do so to buy things, not to socialize and spy on what their friends are buying. Now, the full names of users who provided them to the site are available to the public and indexed by search engines by default. Users must opt out of these exciting new privacy-defying features. More »
—>Jonathan wanted to opt out everyone in his family from direct marketing campaigns, something the DMA promises is possible via their website. Surprise! It turns out the DMA doesn't really care so much about whether or not you want to be taken off any mailing lists, and they have a rotten website and poor security protocols to prove it. More »
—>The Onion reports that Google's new privacy policy requires users who wish to opt out to relocate to a remote ghetto and abandon all contact with the outside world. (Photo: kalle svensson) More »
—>Just like the ending of a horror movie, Circuit City has gone and plunged its soil-covered claw from its grave. Its site may have new owners, but that doesn't mean it's lost all of your tasty personal info. More »
—>Taking a page from the grossly overpriced playbook of Barnes & Noble college bookstores, earlier this week MIcrosoft sent an e-mail to users of the myriad Windows Live and MSN services reminding them that they...had opted not to receive e-mail from Microsoft. Um, thanks? More »
—>Gosh, this is really thoughtful of the Barnes & Noble bookstore on the Georgia Tech campus. They sent Steve an email reminder that at some point in the past, he explicitly opted out of receiving any email communications from them in the future. See, he may have forgotten that he didn't want to be contacted, and how else would he remember it if B&N didn't contact him to let him know? Update: Shane at Mississippi State University received the same helpful reminder from his campus bookstore, also run by B&N. More »
—>We'll give Unilever points for offering an exhaustive opt-out page that covers every conceivable form of communication you may be receiving from them. We'll take all those points away, however, and award them a fail badge for creating the world's longest, most labor intensive opt-out page you've ever seen. More »
—>Last week, Google introduced its new "interest based" ads, which is based on tracking your browsing activity and targeting ads based on that behavior. Fortunately, there are several ways to opt out. More »
—>Last week, Google introduced its new "interest based" ads, which is based on tracking your browsing activity and targeting ads based on that behavior. Fortunately, there are several ways to opt out. More »
—>BoingBoing Gadgets says that Verizon has been mailing out a leaflet to its customers informing them that the company intends to sell their personal information unless they explicitly opt-out. More »
—>You'd think a whole bus is hard to hide but Orbitz had no problem trying to sneak one past Harry McCracken when he was booking a flight to Las Vegas. He noticed at checkout there was a $14 ground transportation fee that had been "added for [his] convenience." Paging backwards, tucked in a list of about 40 upgrades and local attractions was a $14 bus fee. The tricky part was that all the others were opt-in and this one was opt-out. Naughty Orbitz, trying to sneak a bus onto an airplane! More »
