Click Here If You Don't Want Us To Not Send You Nothing - The Financial Modernization Act

6/22/01 - The masterminds of email marketing found some pretty good ways to get you to opt-in to what they call "third party offers". One brainstorm was so effective that the old school financial companies jumped for joy when they learned of it - or so you would think. Some call it the "prechecked opt-in" technique of subscribing or joining a list. We know it as the "click-here-so-we-don't-do-something" method of sharing the info they gather about you and your personal information. You must check a box to have things not happen - the written equivalent of the spoken, "Yes, don't do that", much like:

Q: There are no bananas?
A: Yes.
Q: Yes, which, you have bananas?
A: Yes, we have no bananas.
Q: Well, when will you not have no bananas, you bastid?

So basically, when you fill out a form or receive an email the "check here to receive great offers from our partners" is already checked for you! How convenient! Your financial status for sale to the highest bidder! Just like the web! The aptly named Financial Services Modernization Act was passed!

This allowed your financial services company to ask whether you would like to NOT have your name, credit history, and bank account balance up for sale. With magnificent cunning, such an offer was placed in a mailing that looked EXACTLY like the type of junk you don't want and throw out without opening. Oops! There was actually very fine print there that was your only way out. Too late! Your bank has the right to distribute what essentially is your entire financial history, guaranteed more complete than any lame attempt you've made at maintaining a Quicken file.

The ironic twist on this scenario is the fact that financial institutions were already selling your data to marketers. So, in reality, the Direct Marketers Association and other marketers who had been covertly selling your name for 40 years were actually likely AGAINST this type of legislation. Where before they didn't have to say anything at all about what they did with your data, they now found themselves under increasing scrutiny - all thanks to online marketing. Could our fine New Economy spammers and online marketers actually be screwing their own industry?

It was starting to look that way. Because new technology brings a certain element of fear when it comes to our privacy, the press put the magnifying glass on direct marketing behavior. Turns out that these online marketers were technically being held to a higher standard than the traditional guys. The huge factor at play here was the cost of entry to the market. J. Crew and Victoria's Secret had 2 things going for them:

1. A name brand that people trusted, and
2. Time to amass a list of names who really did want to receive catalogs (well - for the most part).

Joe Blow's Cheap Viagra dot com, on the other hand, can get a hold of an email database and spam the hell out of it in a couple of weeks. He's got no credibility, and his cost of entry to the direct mailing market is minimal. This opened people's eyes.

The Direct Marketing Association is in a tough bind now. On the one hand, they want laws that restrict spamming activities. On the other hand, they don't want these laws to apply to them. Unfortunately, their best plan of attack is to stay the hell out of it and hope that they don't have to send any more "Do not check here" mailings.