@shortridge :P XD sometimes this is an issue they may not be aware of, continued solitation when you said to stop is grounds for law suits.

@shortridge It's frustrating, and somehow must generated just enough traction to be worth the dislike.

I'm glad they don't use the tech vendor passive aggressive "It's not you, it's me" note that so many give you when you unsubscribe.

Yet. (sigh)

I'm also reasonably certain that just means they re-sell the address as active, even if they themselves momentarily stop emailing you.

@shortridge the thing that irks me the most about this is the damn unsubscribe links often link to some link tracking site to try and get analytical data from you even as you're telling them to sod off with their damn emails.

So many times I have to decide if I feel like pausing uBO and Pi-Hole just to follow these links through to press unsub.

@shortridge It’s terrible indeed. I use SimpleLogin to deal with it and just bonk the email addresses they send spam over; they also let you use “one click unsubscribe” email clients to have the sender email blocked 🚫 from sending to your alias.

@shortridge this is how I break out whois and start sending out abuse notices.

@shortridge If I can’t unsubscribe I spam bin. Period. Make me reply back to unsubscribe. Spam bin. Hold no prisoners when it comes to email sanctity. Heheh. Also why I use throw away emails so I can find out who sold my email and… spam bin. 😅

@shortridge I've learned clicking unsubscribe doesn't work and shows them you're paying attention to scroll to bottom to find the unsubscribe link. I just use rule to file them as junk and delete all routinely. Eventually they give up and stop sending e-mails, until Christmas.

@shortridge
Yeah, coders call these "roach motels". Once you start trying to check your way out, it becomes more difficult to opt out or checkout.

@shortridge I feel this very much!

@shortridge drives me up the walls. Instead of unsubscribing, I've been just reporting this type of stuff directly as spam.

@shortridge When that happens I have no problem reporting them as spam.

@shortridge I use the plus email trick: register using the address username+sitename@email.host.com

most email servers (including Gmail) will ignore +sitename and send the email to username@email.host.com.

if I get spam from the site, I just block all emails to username+sitename@email.host.com and move on with my life

@shortridge

Oh man, the other day I closed a Microsoft account. You wouldn’t believe the number of hoops and scare-screens that it took to finally convince them that I really, really wanted to close the account. As it stands it’s still open with a 60-day countdown until it actually closes-closes. 🤦‍♂️

@shortridge The tech bros behind these decisions seem to have problems with "no means no".

@shortridge Political donations are even worse. Have a burner email account for all that. No need for the sites to know your actual email address at all.

@shortridge my least favorite is the non-confirmation and ‘it’ll take two weeks for us to stop sending you this daily ad email for uhhh reasons.’

I probably ‘unsubscribed’ from one company 20 times because I kept forgetting if I’d done it or if it been long enough to know it didn’t go through.

@shortridge I use Mozilla's Firefox Relay for this very purpose now. Keeps my inbox clean and I can enable/disable the relay at any time. When it's disabled, they get blackholed. It also strips out trackers and shit, which is dope. https://relay.firefox.com/

@shortridge

what about the incredibly sleazy effort by Amazon to get you to sign up for Prime ?

iirc, Amazon is being sued over this

@shortridge Nothing a few dozen good lawsuits wouldn't solve.

@shortridge File under the same category as the universal decision by big social media platform to force *their* preferred settings on users (usually some variation on "Let us show you random shit", instead of "Just show stuff posted by actual contacts").

Sure, the toggle still exists, but you can be sure the app will reset it every single time.

@shortridge As someone who works on eCommerce sites, it's because there is no real downside to companies operating like this. Anything that can potentially increase sales and engagement is going to be exploited. The only thing that makes companies second guess these decisions are specific laws like GDPR.

@shortridge Most of the ones I run into still say "I didn't ask for this."

Given their recent events, I probably shouldn't be surprised that Okta is just a rampant spammer.

@shortridge Like "Sign up" and "Maybe later" being the only choices for various services/options. Need a "no, never, my inbox belongs to me!"

@shortridge
💯 I'm absolutely certain that even the "I didn't sign up for this" option has zero effect. Does MailChimp do anything if a business gets too many of those? Somehow I doubt it.

@shortridge just report them as spam and block them. that behavior doesn't deserve the consideration of a response.

@shortridge to add on to your gripe, many of the “action alerts” sites will add your email to numerous DLs. It’s usually impossible to opt out without not participating in the action alert. Once you start getting spammed by various DLs, you can unsubscribe individually but you get no visibility to what DLs you’re on. And subsequent actions will undo your unsubscribe. It’s insidious!

@shortridge advantage of being in the EU, this behavior seems to have quickly disappeared.

@shortridge The "No" button has bern replaced by either a "Maybe Later" or a "I give my consent if I don't click this" button.

@shortridge

Big tech:

Would you like to be groped?

🔲 for sure, can’t wait!
🔲 remind me later

@shortridge This makes their emails into spam and I mark them as such with the hopes that their marketing emails will start getting auto-filtered.

@shortridge one interesting suggestion I read recently is to create an email filter for anything with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, since this is a word humans rarely use in an email. (Wish I could remember who so I could give credit.)

@shortridge it gets more oppressive every day. GREED

@shortridge I also set up a rule after I unsubscribe to move any future emails to my spam folder.

@shortridge I started a new strategy to reclaim my inbox...

everything is junk by default; then it is whitelist address, blacklist address or leave as junk

@shortridge

Tech bros.

============
Armed guards, dogs, watchtowers
============

Understanding consent.

@shortridge I clicked unsubscribe to spam my mom never signed up for and it just creates more spam.now I log onto her email thru a browser and block sender. Because MacMail no longer has a block sender option.

@shortridge The “best” ones are the ones where you buy something once and never hear from them again. Yet after five years or so, after you’ve long forgotten that they even exist, they suddenly decide to send you their newsletter. Yeah, I totally need that one… 🙄

@shortridge "it may take up to 2 weeks to process your unsubscribe request" (I assume this is a feature actually baked into the software.)

@shortridge My personal favorite is one site which whenever I unsubscribe sends me a second email within a minute that says thanks for signing up for our email list. Gotta love how I can't stay unsubscribed for more than sixty seconds. Hopefully the spam filter can deal with them once I add enough of their stuff to the spam list.

@shortridge I told a pharmacy that I can't use because of insurance plan change to stop texting me to request refills.

Now they text me to see if I'm sure that I don't want them to text me

@shortridge "It may take up to 15 days for your preferences to take effect."

@shortridge Why would I ever want to subscribe to notifications? But my options are only "Yes" and "Maybe Later." Can we have "No" or "Never" or "Automatically answer no for every website from now until the end of time"?

@shortridge

One of the things I truly despise, is irritating windows that only let you click on "Yes" or "Continue harassing me more later"

@shortridge It’s frankly rape culture.

Your no, even three times no, isn’t respected.

Then, when you unsubscribe, they say they’ll update your “preferences.”

That wasn’t a preference, it’s a boundary. Get real.

@shortridge In the United States, you can report companies who do this to the FCC for violation of the CAN-SPAM act https://www.fcc.gov/general/can-spam. If the company is doing it at scale, the fine will be considerable.

@shortridge 💯 the tech world has a super warped idea of consent

@shortridge I've largely given up tbh. Now I just don't pay any attention, and "report spam" on every email I see that I don't want. And I encourage everyone to report-spam on any undesired mass email - it's one of the few ways we have to push back on companies ignoring that box, so push back hard and often.

As a bonus, my spam filters gradually get better and better at blocking *all* kinds of promo newsletter nonsense automatically.

@shortridge I recently unsubscribed from a service that only gave an option to the effect of "I can't afford it," no alternative of "It just didn't seem like good value even if I had infinite money at my disposal."

Let me tell you, no coupon offer is going to lure me back after that.

@shortridge
me: I never want to see this again.
website: See less often, got it.

@shortridge I have an email strictly dedicated to online ordering. It makes life so much easier. #spam #tech

@shortridge I developed so much paranoia about this that I started a text file writing down new shops and making sure I never signed up for marketing emails.

Which is how I found out that every single Shopify store ignores the setting, which is very cool.

@shortridge the fact that on so many websites you can't say "don't show this", it's so often qualified to "don't show for a while". You're not given control, your ground down to no longer caring

@shortridge Tech bros who won't take no for an answer in their own lives bringing that quality to their shitty tech

@shortridge See, I just go straight to reporting it as as spam.

@shortridge
[ ] You are here for it
[ ] Ask me later
@jaseg

@shortridge I flatly refuse to provide a reason. If they insist, I just report them to all the spam blackholes.

@shortridge @DamienWise I do want shipping emails. I do not want daily deals. Burn it all.

@shortridge

Always click click the "other" button.

It opens a text box which will end up in someone's marketing spreadsheet.

They would love the cell to contain the lyrics to "never going to give you up", your favourite movie script, etc

@shortridge

Ah, and have you found that the hard-to-spot options reset at the slightest excuse?

We did not like the format of your postal code - are you sure? *Reset*

All Fields Are Required! *Reset*

Thank You For Using PayPal. *Reset*

I can hardly spend a day without encountering a condescending "not now" button that should really have been "never".