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My Junk Mail Experiment

Just for kicks, I decided that in moving to San Francisco, I would tell no business my home address. I started phone and electric service in false names, and forwarded my mail from DC to my new office in downtown San Francisco. I also decided to never open my mailbox, and since March, I've just let the junk mail pile up in it.

This evening I came home and decided to open the mailbox. It was chock full of crap, and only a single piece of mail was for me (addressed to an alias!). There were 12 offers for pre-approved credit for other people who no longer live here. There were 4 identical coupons for Bed, Bath, and Beyond. And there were 3 identical offers for RCN Internet service.

The fun continues. I am going to file prohibitory orders on all of the saturation mail (mail addressed to "current resident) with my trusty Postal Form 1500, which you can obtain from the USPS here. When you file such an order, the sender is barred by federal law from mailing you again. All first class mail will be marked "Refused" and will go back into the mailbox.

Advertisers Fear Lack of Control Over Blogs

In today's Advertising Age, one will find this article that discusses Advertisers' fears that their products will sullied if they appear on blogs with objectionable content.

Is it safe to advertise in places on the Internet that are essentially run by consumers and cannot be controlled? How can they protect themselves and their good names when blog and chat-room users are liable to say and post anything? It’s not just pornography or off-color language that worries them. What if consumers got angry about something involving a marketer’s brand, and their remarks got linked to across the Internet? Maybe advertising in such open spaces is not worth the risk.

That’s certainly true for toy marketers, said Rick Locker, of law firm Locker Greenberg & Brainin, who represents the Toy Industry Association. “Most would view that guerrilla approach as not suitable for their products because they can’t control what goes on there.”

What does this say about advertising and its effects on more controlled media, such as newspapers? If advertisers fear the lack of control of blogs, does that not suggest that part of writing a newspaper is exercising control that will attract advertising dollars?

But technology is coming to the rescue of concerned advertisers:

…Scott Rafer, CEO of Feedster, a blog and RSS search engine and ad network…is building technology to monitor and filter blogs. The other major difference is that because the postings are predictable, the content can be monitored and controlled by automation or by human beings. If something objectionable is posted, an ad can be pulled within minutes, he added.

What does this mean for bloggers? Will they feel compelled to censor user comments or brand-specific criticism in order to continue to attract ad dollars?

New Blog: EPIC West

Hello loyal readers! I have started a new blog devoted only to privacy at EPIC. Visit it sometime: http://epic.org/west/.

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