A subtle but devastating shift that has occurred in the last decade plus is the requirement to opt out versus the need to opt in. So what am I talking about? Well, let’s think of an example where you get a text and I’ve received a political campaign text and then it says reply to stop, or if I don’t reply to stop, then I’m auto rolled into enrolled in these texts that I had never signed up for to begin with.
And so there are examples of this all over. I remember one thing that happened to me was my bank started charging me for my checking and I had never been charged previously. And I hadn’t gone down my, my charges in my bank for a few months because I just look at the balance and if it was about right, then it was good.
But as I looked over my charges one month, I noticed that I was getting charged for my checking. So I called the bank. And they had auto enrolled me in this checking and their reasoning was, their rationale was, we sent you, we sent you letters on this and you didn’t opt out. And so I shouldn’t have to opt out to anything. It is, it is up to me to opt in. It is not up to you to opt me in. And that’s what this, this burden, has shifted to the clients, the consumers, the users now over time. And this didn’t used to be the case, but now with with more being done online and these, the movement towards subscriptions now, and especially with privacy, there are so many companies that are abusing this practice and really engaging in unethical and deceptive behavior.
And just think about really how we opt into default because these cut these companies, they change their privacy policies. And their data collection policies over time, and we’re not alerted to that except for we get an email that your, you’re the privacy policy has been updated. Well, updated is always that code word for something has been used against you now, and so this is happening all over the place. And so I have other examples written down. The text one is a good one because I hate that one because with text, I really don’t want to reply to anything or click on anything and unless it’s absolutely necessary.
So you really, there, there should be no way that I have to reply, stop. And then similarly with emails that I never signed up for. And then they tell me, well click unsubscribe to unsubscribe or reply. I don’t want to take the time to reply. And I don’t want to click on your unsubscribe link is very well be a phishing scam.
So that’s also problematic. We’ve seen this with software and I this, this happens all of the time. We, we buy something and then we are in effect. Subscribe to something or we sign up for something or something else gets installed along with it. And then we have to remove that or cancel that to avoid using it.
And so we don’t, it doesn’t always have to result in a purchase. We just, just think of a new computer and how much comes bundled in Windows computers with Windows operating systems now. And I don’t, I never want, I didn’t want it. I never asked for it. But now. Along with the fine print, right? We have so much is that that comes bundled with it.
Also tracking. I know this this, this, this happens all of the time. They’re, they’re, we have tracking enabled, right? Like we’re, we’re, we’re being tracked. The only way for us not to be tracked is to request it or to find to find out the, to find the opt out or to select all of these boxes I’ve noticed.
Something that’s come lately is more, there are more ways that you are tracked and then you have to select all of these different methods that you’re being tracked. So that’s, that’s also a problem and it really becomes time consuming because you have to find out how your data is being collected.
You have to find out where to opt out. And then there’s all, all of these segments of data that are being. And it applies to all different types of uses. And so you may think that you’ve opted out and but you really haven’t. And you’re, you’re, you’re still being your, your, your privacy is still being invaded.
And it’s, it’s supposedly okay because. There, there’s fine print or there’s an option, there’s a setting where you can opt out, but I should never have to opt out. I should have to opt in to being tracked and that’s the, the key switch and that is so deceptive and it is so unethical and yet it is so much a common practice of commerce today.
And so I have a few more examples. Let’s see. Checked it. So one way this hap happens is you’ll have, there’ll be check boxes that are automatically checked and really it should be the, the opposite because it’s very easy to overlook a checkbox that’s checked, especially when. The companies purposely don’t want these to be something that is noticeable.
So it’s usually going to be in smaller font. It’s going to be positioned lower on the page. It might be in lower contrast. Sometimes it’s conspicuous, but many times it’s not. And we know that companies engage in all sorts of deceptive tactics to ensure That this doesn’t, this doesn’t become something where they have too many people that are opting out.
So if people are opting out, they try to find ways to hide this and obfuscate it so that you don’t opt out. And, and so those are the points that I wanted to cover. But this is a, this is something that really goes under the radar, but as yet it’s impacting. Literally hundreds of millions of people, because now you have to opt out and you have to know how to opt out and then you have to opt out fully, right?
Because we can’t just opting out of one thing isn’t enough. There might be several different ways that data is being collected or we’re signing up for something. It could be a service or something else. And we have to figure out that. And so now that’s a way that in the aggregate, we are spending, we are spending millions of hours of time.
And if we’re not spending the time, then we are signing away rights, or we are signing up for something that we never asked for. And then If we do, if we are able to unsubscribe, then we have to spend our time getting a refund or or contacting support. And it becomes a real onerous burden on, on the consumer on.
on the clients, on the customers. And, and this is, this is something that is that really needs legislation around and real legislation. The debt, there shouldn’t be a way to, for companies to work around the law. They should have, everything should require you to opt in rather than to opt out.