Exercise Your Options to Protect Your Privacy: Unwanted Marketing Messages (February 2010)

The toolkit associated with this column can be found here.

Tired of annoying telemarketing calls that always seem to interrupt dinner? Fed up with receiving piles of junk mail every time you open your mailbox? Sick of having to delete all those unsolicited e-mails you’ve been getting from online marketers? You’re not alone. Now more than ever, people are looking for ways to reduce unwanted ads and promotional offers that come via computer, telephone and the mail. It is not just the inconvenience. You are concerned about how these companies got your contact information, and who else they have given it to or may give it to in the future.

There are steps you can take to reduce the flow of unwanted marketing messages. Each of these steps requires that you do something -- that you exercise an available privacy option. The New York State Department of State Division of Consumer Protection recognizes that you may not be aware of your options or how to exercise them. Furthermore, while some of these options may be easy to understand, others may be complex. That is why the Division has launched a new privacy initiative called “Exercise Your Options.”

By following some basic steps, and exercising your privacy options, you can take hold of your personal privacy. Our first checklist below explains how you can exercise your options to reduce unwanted marketing messages. Future checklists, as part of our “Exercise Your Options” Toolkit, will address the issues that you identify to us as your biggest privacy concerns. We ask that you follow the instructions at the end of this article to tell us what you would like to learn in future installments of the “Exercise Your Options” series.

As you will see, in some cases even the best available privacy option may seem weak. It may not stop a significant number of solicitations, or it may be impractical for you. In those cases, we encourage you to let us know your concerns and join with us in advocating for stronger and more effective options. Let’s work together to enhance personal privacy. The Division is here to help.

CURRENT PRIVACY OPTIONS:

1. Unsubscribe from unwanted marketing e-mails: Chances are, your e-mail inbox is filled with ads and promotional offers sent to you as a “subscriber.” Have you ever made any purchases from the sender company or one of its affiliates? (In an e-mail from an affiliate, you should find the main company’s name somewhere in the body of the message.) If your answer to the purchase question is “no”, the e-mail could be spam and you should simply delete it. If “yes”, you should look for language near the bottom of the e-mail that features the word “Unsubscribe.” For each such e-mail where you have made purchases from the company or one of its affiliates, follow the instructions on how to “Unsubscribe.” You should not be required to provide any personal information other than the e-mail address you wish to have removed. If you are unable to find these instructions or if they are unclear, contact the sender at the address provided in the e-mail.
    
2. Opt-Out of so-called “Communications Options” at the bottom of your online shopping cart page: You are on the shopping cart page of an online seller and you are about to click the button that says “Submit Order.” Just above this button, you notice a section headlined “Communication Options.” The message adjacent to the checked box reads “Yes! Please keep me informed about…” or “Yes! Please add me to the mailing list for…” or similar language. By allowing this box to remain checked, you are authorizing the seller, and possibly its affiliates, to send you marketing e-mails you may not want to receive. Uncheck this box before submitting your order.
    
3. Block unwanted telemarketing calls: Register your telephone number with the National Do Not Call Registry online at www.donotcall.gov or by telephone at 1-888-382-1222 from the number you wish to register. Registration is free and permanent. But even if you register, calls from companies with which you have an existing business relationship are still permitted -- UNLESS you tell them directly: “Put me on your internal Do Not Call List.” This is a different list from the National Do Not Call Registry. Under the federal Telephone Communications Protection Act, the telemarketer has 31 days to remove your phone number from its contact list. Please bear in mind that an “existing business relationship” can include having an open account with the company that you have not used in many years. As long as your account remains open and available for future use, you still have an “existing business relationship.”
    
4. Opt-out of “pre-approved” offers for credit and insurance: “Congratulations! You have been Pre-Approved for a Low Interest Credit Card.” You’ve received offers like this in your mailbox and you want to stop them. You can opt-out of receiving “pre-approved” offers for a period of five years by calling 1-888-567-8688 (1-888-5OptOut) or by visiting the opt-out website at www.optoutprescreen.com. These resources are maintained by the consumer credit reporting industry, and opt-outs are reported to each of the credit reporting agencies. To opt-out permanently, you must print out a form from the website and mail it to the address provided on the site.
    
5. Opt-out of some sharing of your personal information by financial institutions: You have the right to prevent the sharing of your personal information by your financial institution with non-affiliated or outside companies unless certain exceptions apply. These exceptions include situations where the information might be needed for normal business transactions or to prevent fraud, or is used as part of a joint marketing agreement with the outside company, or is reasonably believed to be “publicly available”(e.g., from DMV records or the telephone book). In order to prevent this sharing, you must follow the financial institution’s opt-out procedure. Check the institution’s privacy notice for details on what information is shared with non-affiliates and how you can opt-out. For further information on the sharing of your personal information by financial institutions, please visit http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/privacy/yourrights/index.html.
    
6. Opt-out of mailing lists for catalogs, magazine and other mail offers: You can exercise your option to remove your name from mailing lists for all catalogs, magazine and other mail offers, or only certain offers from some of the nearly 3,600 companies which are members of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). To participate in the DMA mail preference service online, please visit the website https://www.dmachoice.org/dma/member/regist.action (no fee to register online) or by mail at Mail Preference Service, PO Box 643, Carmel, N.Y. 10512 ($1 fee payable by check or money order for registration by mail). For companies that are not identified in the DMA system, you should contact them directly to let them know your opt-out preferences.
    
7. Opt-out of the Abacus cooperative database: When you purchase products through a catalog the catalog publisher may share your contact information with other publishers by adding your information to the Abacus Cooperative database. This may result in additional solicitations from other catalog publishers. To avoid this problem, you can opt-out of the database in one simple step. Forward your opt-out request along with personal contact information for identification purposes either by mail to Abacus, Opt-Out, P.O. Box 1478, Broomfield, Colorado 80038 or by e-mail to abacusoptout@epsilon.com.
    
8. Opt-out of marketing uses by information brokers: Commercial information brokers collect, buy and sell information about consumers to marketing companies and others. You have some rights to opt-out of these marketing uses. For information on your opt-out rights for the ChoicePoint marketing database, visit http://www.privacyatchoicepoint.com/optout_ext.html#optout. You can also have your information removed from the “marketing information products” of information broker Acxiom by contacting Acxiom via e-mail at optoutUS@acxiom.com or phone at (877) 774-2094 or by using the Opt-Out Request Form available at the Acxiom website. To learn more about Acxiom’s opt-out policies for its marketing information products and to access the online Opt-Out Request Form, visit http://www.acxiom.com/about_us/privacy/consumer_information/Pages/consumer information.aspx. For up-to-date information on other information broker opt-outs, please visit http://www.privacyrights.org/online-information-brokers-list.
    
9. Opt-out of sharing your child’s information with marketers: The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act permits local school districts to release to third parties including marketers certain personal information about your child which the school district has designated as “student directory information” without your prior consent. This information can include your child’s name, street address, telephone number and e-mail address. To find out whether your school district shares your child’s student directory information with marketers and other third parties, contact the school district directly. For policy reasons, your school district may have decided not to share any student directory information with marketers or with any outside parties. Find out what your school district’s policy is and, if it is unacceptable to you, ask for an Opt-Out form to prevent future sharing.
    
10. Use the Opt-Out provided by the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) to block the sharing of your online activities with ad-targeting companies: Every click, every search, every page you view, what content you view and what videos you watch, and all of your e-mails, purchases, and interactions on social networking sites--all of these online activities are tracked by small chunks of data called cookies which are stored on your computer. This data is used by ad targeting companies to build your behavioral profile and serve you ads that match your profile. The Federal Trade Commission is currently investigating the practice of online behavioral targeting and Congress may enact oversight legislation to help protect your privacy later this year. You need to exercise the best privacy option currently at your disposal.
    
    Your best option today for blocking the sharing of your online activities is to use the NAI Opt-Out which is available at www.networkadvertising.org. This option blocks the tracking activities of all thirty-eight (38) NAI member companies identified on the site. You may opt-out of tracking cookies for all or just some of these companies though it would be difficult to decide which company you might not want to opt-out of without an extensive investigation of their policies and practices. This would require a review of each company’s website.
    
    A simpler solution would be to opt-out for all 38 companies. When you opt-out, your tracking cookie is replaced with a general opt-out cookie which blocks the use of your data for targeted advertising purposes. One problem: when your automated security software checks for spyware and viruses, it is likely to remove the NAI Opt-Out cookie. To guard against this possibility, you should return to the NAI website from time- to- time to check your status and, if necessary, opt-out again. The NAI has begun work on a solution that may help make your Opt-Out permanent. ¹ We will keep you up-to-date on the progress of this project, and let you know when the solution may be ready for general use.
    
    According to the advocacy group PrivacyChoice² , NAI membership covers less than one-fifth of all ad-targeting companies operating in the U.S. so the NAI Opt-Out is not a complete solution. Because dealing with the rest of these companies individually would be a complicated and time-consuming exercise, we do not recommend it. Instead, use the NAI Opt-Out as your current best option for blocking behavioral tracking and revisit the Division's site from time to time for updated guidance.

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