There has been an incredible reaction to the launch of iOptOut. Thousands of registrations, coverage from the Globe and CBC, blog postings from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and Mathew Ingram, as well as lots of suggestions for improvement.
iOptOut: The First 36 Hours
15 Comments
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mjwebster@rogers.com
Frankly, the idea of telling the world I don’t want to be called is dumb. When your lovely collection of data is hacked or stolen, how will you explain to the marks that they are on every scam list?
Buy a $10 answering machine and screen your calls – never block and never explain.
Being on a DNC list is being on a scam list? Now either mjwebster is paranoid, or they don’t know what they ate blatherng about.
isn’t it ironic, dontcha think?
@mjwebster – I find it ironic that the person concerned about this data getting into the wrong hands used their actual e-mail address as the title of their post
Mary Ellen
This is great – one of the more annoying challenges with unwanted calls is that they are now leaving LONG messages on the answering machine. When you run a home business this can make the difference between a new contract or a missed opportunity.
Thanks for this –
Arbyem
Great initiative, hopefully an effective one! Where does one learn about the Canadian legislation concerning the “opt-out” process?
Appreciatively
As I was reading the iOptOut home page, the phone rang — The Conservative Party of Canada, soliciting contributions for the next election campaign.
It’s a great day for irony.
I signed up
Nice. Very nice. I like the part about using the Privacy Act to block the “Exempted Entities”, that was absolutely beautiful. I signed up immediately, and yes, I’ve blocked all the exempted entities.
I have to admit I’ve been wondering if the government would ever implement the registry, or if they would try to forget about it. It seems that since they passed the legislation that the number of calls has risen, as if the telemarketing firms have been trying to get every last sale they could in before their ability to call was cut off. But maybe I’m too cynical.
This is great – thanks for this very useful service. Governments should be providing this as a service to Canadians.
regular person
Thanks for providing this service. I look foward to the peace and quiet.
Unwanted calls to my home have increased dramatically over the last threemonths. It’s not your imagination. The dirty scoundrels are running ahead of the wave and trying to punch in as many new clients as they can before being submerged in a sea of silence.
Increased Calls Of Late
@SG – I wouldn’t be surprised at the increased calls being part of a scam by some telemarketers to claim that technically they have a prior reltionship with you. Or at least try tp convince you they can contact you again later, and therefor circumvent the process.
Suggestion for improvement
Just signed up, so far so good Michael. I suspect you’ve got a long road ahead, but the important part was that proverbial first step, so good on ya.
What a great idea! Thank you!
and the Stop The Throttler! campaign:
[ link ]
Great job Michael! A service of this nature, especially a free one with no strings attached, is long overdue. A sincere thank you to you for all of your work in making this possible.