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Spam Prevention Tips #2
We can’t say it enough times. Sometimes we’re in such a hurry to complete the sign-up process that we don’t stop to read the warning signs. Personally, I can’t remember the last time I actually read the terms and conditions before clicking the submit button. However, it’s often the terms and conditions that determine whether or not you are going to receive marketing spam from this company at a later time or not.
Having said that, most reputable companies do conform to the industry standard of allowing registrants the option to opt-in or opt-out of their email subscriptions. In actual fact, the industry has been moving away from the opt-out method as an acceptable form of registration and now most services are requiring opt-in. Confused?
Well the key thing here is to remember to check for the tick boxes which either sign you up or sign you out of receiving emails from the company whose web site you are currently on. The trick is to carefully read the text next to the tick box as some will ask you if you wish to be added to their mailing list whereas others will ask you if you do NOT want to be added to their mailing list. To confuse you even more, sometimes the box will already be ticked and other times it will be empty. There is no standard convention, so you can’t just assume that it’s working in your favour.
Here at Remote Anti Spam we would like to see a situation where web sites agree to conform to a single form of sign up with a single approach understood by everybody. All forms should simply ask
- ‘Do you wish to receive our products newsletter?’
The options should simply be to tick either of the Yes or No boxes. The default option should be ‘No’ so that users have to opt-in to receive messages. If the company wants to offer to send you carefully selected offers and news from their partners (i.e. other people’s spam) the wording should be as simple as
- ‘Would you be happy for us to pass on your email address to our partner companies?‘
Again the default option should be ‘No’. While it is unlikely, however, that this position is going to be arrived at anytime soon, we are writing this guide to advise Internet users to carefully read the wording before clicking that submit button. Remember that the definition of spam hinges on the fact that an unwanted message you receive is ‘unsolicited’. If you got the tick box wrong, i.e. if you misread the wording, or didn’t understand it, and selected the wrong option, you may have unwittingly opted-in to receive spam messages from that company. In that case, the message(s) you’re receiving are not technically spam, even if they are heavily encouraging you to buy non prescription, endurance delivering, erotic drugs from their online pharmacy in Hanoi.
