RE: How to know whether a person clicked a link in an email

["Kathleen" <keamac -at- cox -dot- net>]

Well, it hasn't been declared OT yet, so I'll chime in with my .02.
Personally, I don't even like acknowledging email from my sister. But I
think there's a larger issue at stake. In light of the massive
double-speak in which corporations wrap their dealings with consumers
(e.g., just read the privacy/policy statement your bank sends you
periodically), it's very hard to opt out. Your points are correct,
David, one can check, but I ask you, how much time are you willing to
devote to this issue. Do you have a lot of spare time on your hands? Do
you understand all of the information you're given in all the fine
print? Or are you just comfortable with the status quo? Personally, I
don't want to spend my time tracking that junk. Not only that, I'm not
sophisticated but I'm a lot more savvy than a lot of people who use the
net--are you saying that we all have to become experts just to protect
our personal interests?

Beyond that, I think there are grave ethical issues about using such
tracking agents. Just because I register one of the many electronic
doohickeys I've bought in the last x years doesn't mean I give someone
permission to track my activities, and how am I going to remember
everything I've bought (wait till you have kids). Cleaning out a file
cabinet, I just found a warranty for a calculator I bought in '78. So,
this is another thing I need to track in my life? Give me a break. 

And to everyone else, just because you can find a very narrow line of
reasoning in which you see no obvious ethical flaws for doing something
does not mean it is ethical to do it, in that case or in any of the
others in which it would quickly be applied. 

I fear my debate skills are falling prey to emotional upheaval, so I'll
quit while I'm ahead.

Kathleen M.


-----Original Message-----
From: dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 8:54 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: How to know whether a person clicked a link in an email


Lou, Lou, Lou...

 >
 > I suppose there can be such thing as "an ongoing opt-in association
 > with a sender".

Of course there can:  it's one where someone opts in and doesn't opt
out, 
for Pete's sake. You order something from Acme Corp and write your
e-mail 
address on the registration card or check a box that says it's OK to
send 
information about similar products to the one you ordered.

 >
 > Dunno how I'd know I were in one...

By remembering you'd agreed to receive e-mail from that company.  Duh.

 > ...stay conscious of the terms and all their implications...

You could go read on their web site where they've posted their privacy 
policy.  Most companies seem to have them, nowadays, even 
offline--statements on privacy policy and opt-out procedures arrive in
my 
snail-mail box almost every day from banks, doctors' offices, insurance 
companies, utility companies...all kinds of businesses.

 > By God, I'm glad they're tracking me...
 > If you think there's a middle ground...you're full of it.

Statements like those are rather ironic after of your insult about
junior 
high debate class, don't you think?

Oops!  I wasn't going to post any more on this topic.  (I can't believe
we 
haven't been busted yet.)

--David

 





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