This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Really Unsubscribe
Nov
28
2018
I know it’s not in the best interest of the companies that send out emails, but I don’t like how unsubscribes are handled.
I think Europe has the right idea of the right-to-be-forgotten. Right now in the US, all of my unsubscribe options take me to a screen that has my email address and my settings, so I can choose how or if I want emails from them.
The problem is that still leaves my email address in their databases. I don’t want these email lists to save any of my information – I want an option to delete my information.
My wife got some scam emails recently that claimed to have hacked her email and password and instructed her to send them some bitcoins in order for them to not send out incriminating stuff to all her contacts.
We could tell that it was a scam, because we use different passwords for everything, so we knew the password they sent us was not her email password. And because of the unique passwords, we were able to figure out what happened.
The hackers got into some website where my wife had signed into once or twice, and they stole everyone’s emails that they used to sign up for the site along with the passwords for that site. Then they sent phishing emails to everyone from there, assuming that some of the people use the same password for everything and thus wouldn’t know their email really wasn’t hacked.
If people had the option to delete their information from the site, then the damage from these types of attacks could be reduced.
The action when I click “Remove me from this list” should literally remove my information from the records, not just add a note that says I don’t want emails.
On the plus side, I’ve noticed that some of the “Manage your email” pages let me not only opt out of various types of emailings, but they also let me change my email address. I think that is, while not perfect, certainly an acceptable way to remove my real address from their system. Sure, let me update my email address to someone@example.com…
Ok, last point – it should not take 10 days for your system to update my email preferences. If your back-end database really takes 10 days for settings to propagate through it, you need to fire whoever set that up. Unless it runs off magnetic tape reels that need to be manually switched – if it’s that old then you get a pass. But any email list management software worth its salt should be able to make changes instantly. Those claims of 10 days are nothing more than feet-dragging policy.
Listen, O daughter, give attention and incline your ear: Forget your people and your father’s house;
Psalm 45:10
