chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (10/01/84)
An interesting thing has happened recently that I thought might be of
interest to everyone out there. I got some junk mail. Now the interesting
part of that is that it was addressed in such a way that I feel the only
place they could have gotten my name and address from is the database of
Usenet site contacts. Now, that information is definitely public domain,
and people can do with it what they like (especially when they ARE paying
the postage-- my electronic mailbox is another story) but I do question
whether or not this is an ethical thing. As Usenet expands I expect we'll
be seeing more and more of this-- should we attempt to encourage or
discourage it, or should we ignore it completely (it won't go away, of
course)?
chuq
--
From the Department of Bistromatics: Chuq Von Rospach
{amd,decwrl,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
What do I know, after all I'm just a begonia...rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (10/02/84)
> An interesting thing has happened recently that I thought might be of > interest to everyone out there. I got some junk mail. Now the interesting > part of that is that it was addressed in such a way that I feel the only > place they could have gotten my name and address from is the database of > Usenet site contacts...should we attempt to encourage or > discourage it, or should we ignore it completely (it won't go away, of > course)? As with any junk mail scheme, it won't continue if it doesn't work. If you people who receive the junk mail are, as a group, sufficiently hacked off about getting it, do two things: - Don't respond to the solicitation (or whatever) even if it sounds like something that might be interesting. That is, don't give the solicitor any positive feedback. - Send a piece of protesting mail and ask to have them not send you anything more. (It's easy to do this if you set up a form letter to send out.) This gives them a piece of email which they have to look at (because it might be a reply indicating interest) but no return on their time invested. It's sort of like sending back the business reply envelope empty when you get some totally useless junk mail. If it gets out of hand in spite of this approach, the people getting the junk mail could always ask the USENET community for help. This is a LARGE group of people; annoying them even a little bit can produce a "meaningful response." -- Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303)444-5710 x3086 ...Relax...don't worry...have a homebrew.
fair@dual.UUCP (Erik E. Fair) (10/07/84)
This happened to me once before. I managed to identify the site which
was responsible for the mailing (well, if they mail to my address in
the USENET Compact Directory, then they must be on USENET somewhere...)
and I let them know that I did *not* appreciate their use of the USENET
directory, and they promised never to do it again. So far as I'm
concerned, use of the USENET Compact directory as a direct mail
marketing list is inappropriate, especially since there are
commercially available mailing lists for that purpose.
Just find out who on the net did it, and let 'em know that you don't
appreciate it. They do stop if you raise a big enough stink.
Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucb-arpa.ARPA
dual!fair@BERKELEY.ARPA
{ihnp4,ucbvax,hplabs,decwrl,cbosgd,sun,nsc,apple,pyramid}!dual!fair
Dual Systems Corporation, Berkeley, Californiamoriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (10/09/84)
I don't like it either, but I'm not sure there's much we can do about it.
It only takes one person to get a list of names from the net (or from the
UUCP directory published by Intelligent Decisions); someone who does this
will probably do it for profit, and thus is not going to be thinking of it
as screwing up our privacy... it's just research to them. However, it might
be a nice idea to have our vote posted, just for the record: I say NAY!
Give me liberty, and give death to the next fella...
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
UUCP:
{cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsrgv}!uw-beaver \
{allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty
ARPA:
fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA