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US Government wants to make it easier for you to click the 'unsubscribe' button

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Re: US Government wants to make it easier for you to click the 'unsubscribe' button

#91

Post by organsnyder »

thevillagechief wrote: post #43
the__alchemist wrote: post #7

Anecdotally: A: I get more spam than ever. What is especially annoying is that the majority of reputable companies do this. Order something? Sign up for an account? Set up an LLC? File a trademark? Boom: Spam emails UFN. B: It's easier to unsubscribe than ever: Often one-click at the bottom of the email, or let Gmail/Fastmail etc do it for you. Generally effective. One annoyance I find is the Our terms have been alte…

I got an email from CrowdStrike Communications by George Kurtz about the root cause analysis for the Channel File 291 incident on my personal email. I was sure it was some scam but it looks absolutely legit with the Gmail blue check. I don't remember ever signing up for any CrowdStrike communication or product. Are they just sending these to everyone in the world?

I got the same email. Never been a CrowdStrike customer or even (that I remember) had any contact with a sales rep. They must've blasted that to every list they had.

Re: US Government wants to make it easier for you to click the 'unsubscribe' button

#92

Post by organsnyder »

noneeeed wrote: post #38
hypeatei wrote: post #2

Nice. I also wish deleting accounts was easier so that you don't have to read support FAQs and eventually find the email to send the deletion request to and wait days before being acknowledged and pestered for a "reason" you're leaving.

What gets me is that I'm way more likely to return to or recommend a service that I know I can easily cancel. Most of the streaming services are pretty good for this and I'm much happier returning to them because of that and will happily recommend them. I remember signing up to Which? (a bit like Consumer Reports but in the UK), and cancelling my account was so f-ing hard that I will never sign up again, ever, and I…

I cancelled my Jetbrains subscription a while back because I wasn't using any of their products for my current work. They made the process so easy that I will consider going back to them in a heartbeat when I next have need of their offerings.

Re: US Government wants to make it easier for you to click the 'unsubscribe' button

#93

Post by red_admiral »

the__alchemist wrote: post #7

Anecdotally: A: I get more spam than ever. What is especially annoying is that the majority of reputable companies do this. Order something? Sign up for an account? Set up an LLC? File a trademark? Boom: Spam emails UFN. B: It's easier to unsubscribe than ever: Often one-click at the bottom of the email, or let Gmail/Fastmail etc do it for you. Generally effective. One annoyance I find is the Our terms have been alte…

Regular T&C spam? Mark it as spam. If enough people do this, that company will have problems getting e-mails through at all.

Re: US Government wants to make it easier for you to click the 'unsubscribe' button

#94

Post by kotaKat »

wincy wrote: post #56
the__alchemist wrote: post #7

Anecdotally: A: I get more spam than ever. What is especially annoying is that the majority of reputable companies do this. Order something? Sign up for an account? Set up an LLC? File a trademark? Boom: Spam emails UFN. B: It's easier to unsubscribe than ever: Often one-click at the bottom of the email, or let Gmail/Fastmail etc do it for you. Generally effective. One annoyance I find is the Our terms have been alte…

The most persistent emails I’ve gotten are from being Mormon at some point in my life, and familysearch.com has some special Mormons only mailing list that you’ll get re added to no matter how many times you unsubscribe. It’s kind of hilarious in a way to speculate why (Mormon church actually has a pretty good IT team in my experience, my guess is some automated system syncs over emails from Mormon church roles to th…

Keep in mind the LDS used to have an internal wiki page about "Locating people"...

Re: US Government wants to make it easier for you to click the 'unsubscribe' button

#95

Post by efitz »

litenboll wrote: post #28

Disclosure: I only read up until it was revealed what the policy was. This was always my opinion on this. "As easy to cancel as it is to sign up". It's simple, and completely shuts down this malicious behaviour without making it harder to operate for the honest companies (or worse for customers in any way I can think of). Usually these policies have downsides but I can't really think of any. This kind of behaviour is…

I have been trying to get my state legislators to implement such a consumer law for over a decade.

The federal proposal will likely be ineffective unless it has an individual cause of action. What that means is that the only way (IMO) such a law works is not if the government enforces it, but rather if any consumer can sue the company in small claims court for a reasonable judgment (eg $1000 or something). Now the company has to fix their ways or feel death from a million cuts, and the cost to defend likely exceeds the cost to pay.

The other things the law needs (it may have but the article wasn’t clear) are clarity and penalties for dark patterns.

For example, “as simple as it was to subscribe” needs to be WAY more detailed, eg “takes no more time for a reasonable person to unsubscribe than it did to subscribe” and “the user must be able to use the same communication channel or mechanism (eg web, mobile app, etc) used to subscribe, in order to unsubscribe”, and “at the time of subscription, unsubscribe instructions must be provided to the user via a persistent medium such as email”, and “the unsubscribe interface must be prominently discoverable on the web site or mobile application”, etc.

And any dark patterns or intentional violations need to make the recoverable amount subject to a multiplier.

I am happy that the government is tackling this but doing it through regulatory action is not likely to help much IMO; especially in light is the recent Supreme Court decision regarding Chevron deference, it’s likely not to last through legal challenges. (IANAL)

Re: US Government wants to make it easier for you to click the 'unsubscribe' button

#96

Post by [deleted] »

exabrial wrote: post #88

Rather than adding additional regulation (which rarely works, just look at Apple vs EU), the only change needed is to allow individuals to sue under the CANSPAM act. Fairly certain you'd see an immediate change in behavior. Right now, only State AGs can sue. While we're at it, extend CANSPAM to physical mail as well so we can clean up the massive environmental burden of companies abusing the US Postal Service for mar…

[deleted]

Re: US Government wants to make it easier for you to click the 'unsubscribe' button

#97

Post by mtmail »

fnbr wrote: post #42

I hate how every company that I place an order with treats that as permission to send a constant drip of marketing emails. I send them straight to spam.

The article is not about emails, it’s about cancelling paid subscriptions.

Re: US Government wants to make it easier for you to click the 'unsubscribe' button

#98

Post by mtmail »

hiddencost wrote: post #41

Okay, but now do political emails. They're not subject to CANSPAM. I don't want to receive calls and emails for the rest of my life just because I donated to a candidate once. I should have to proactively choose to opt in, before I receive any marketing emails.

The article is not about emails or phone calls, it’s about cancelling paid subscriptions.

Re: US Government wants to make it easier for you to click the 'unsubscribe' button

#99

Post by tengbretson »

misstuned wrote: post #37
litenboll wrote: post #28

Disclosure: I only read up until it was revealed what the policy was. This was always my opinion on this. "As easy to cancel as it is to sign up". It's simple, and completely shuts down this malicious behaviour without making it harder to operate for the honest companies (or worse for customers in any way I can think of). Usually these policies have downsides but I can't really think of any. This kind of behaviour is…

The same goes for all services. I was able to sign up for an ISP service (in the UK) online very easily, with a few clicks and entries onto a form to enter my details, choose my installation date, choose my speed, etc. Fast forward a few years, I'm leaving that house and need to cancel the internet - snail mail letter needed.

I had an internet service that could be signed up for on the internet, but required a phone call to cancel. During covid they could not staff their phone service properly so it was effectively broken (20 minute holds, getting booted from the queue, etc.), so I just closed the card and told them to pound sand.

Re: US Government wants to make it easier for you to click the 'unsubscribe' button

#100

Post by eckesicle »

litenboll wrote: post #59
misstuned wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same goes for all services. I was able to sign up for an ISP service (in the UK) online very easily, with a few clicks and entries onto a form to enter my details, choose my installation date, choose my speed, etc. Fast forward a few years, I'm leaving that house and need to cancel the internet - snail mail letter needed.

It's similar here in Sweden. Usually they require a call to support, officially. However, I think there is a law/policy that require them to accept unsubscriptions by mail/message, regardless of what they say on their website. I recently did this and it worked! Maybe there's something similar in the UK?

Yes that’s right. You can unsubscribe by any which way you want. Mail, phone call, pigeon. Any message sent to any employee or office in anyway is deemed acceptable for giving notice for any service or contract.
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