In message <003b01c5c4d7$ca195e00$0300a8c0@piii>, at 10:25:52 on Thu, 29
Sep 2005, Paul Ticher <[log in to unmask]> writes
>A participant in one of my training courses last week reported having heard
>a staff member from the Commissioner's Office, in public, stating
>categorically that an opt out from marketing was not sufficient, and that an
>opt in was the only way to comply with the DPA.
>
>I have just received an e-mail from a different client saying that a
>colleague has been told that the law is changing soon to require an opt in.
Perhaps there is some confusion in the terminology.
In Data Protection/Privacy Directive terms, an opt-in is when the
customer agrees to be marketed to by a particular company, an opt-out is
when he adds his name to a central register to say "no marketing from
anyone, please".
You can, of course, cancel an opt-in; but that's exactly what it is,
cancelling an opt-in (it's not an opt-out).
If there's a web page, or a piece of paper, which says "tick here to
prevent us assuming you want to opt in", then again that's exactly what
it means. It may be sneaky, underhand, and so on, but it's not an
opt-out. The process of which it is a part is opt-in.
I fear we will have to live with this "preselected opt-in" or whatever
you want to call it, just as we have to live with soft opt-in (a variant
of opt-in where you are assumed to agree to opt-in with companies you've
done business with, unless you say otherwise; but you must be given the
opportunity to cancel the opt-in).
Be thankful there's any kind of opt-in for email, it very nearly went
opt-out (like for telephone and snail mail), which would have been a
much much bigger mess.
--
Roland Perry
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