---
date: '2024-03-03'
title: "I'm going to keep opting out"
description: "Marketing, solicitations, advertising, political contact, direct mailers, email campaigns, cookies, ads — it's all opt out. It puts the burden on you to opt out of each communication each message, each outreach from a loyalty program. It can feel like weeding a garden, but that garden is your attention. The weeds keep returning, insisting upon their removal. One after another."
tags: ['tech', 'privacy']
---
Marketing, solicitations, advertising, political contact, direct mailers, email campaigns, cookies, ads — it's all opt out. It puts the burden on you to opt out of each communication each message, each outreach from a loyalty program. It can feel like weeding a garden, but that garden is your attention. The weeds keep returning, insisting upon their removal. One after another.<!-- excerpt -->

I don't want to be sent weekly emails because I bought something from you *once*. I may have installed your app, but I don't want to navigate multiple screens, provide you with my email (which you've already abused) and deal with myriad toggles to get you to leave me alone.

Yes, I'm a registered voter, yes I know when to vote, yes I'm going to — leave me alone. Each contact is another number blocked. If you're going to call me and you can't leave me a voicemail (because, really — who's going to answer an unknown number?) that's another number to block. I've got a no soliciting sign on my door so no, no I don't want to talk to your canvasser.

GDPR was well intentioned, but the cookie banners and compliance cottage industry that grew out of it are a blight on the web. I'll opt out of all but your essential cookies, but I'd rather it be opt in (nobody's going to opt in). Couldn't we do this at the browser level? Set that preference once and leave me alone henceforth. I'm going to have the same opinion for every site seeking to so graciously bequeath my browser with cookies.

I don't want your direct mailers and I shouldn't have to opt out via DMA Choice. If I wanted them, I'd sign up for them (I don't want them).

Want my number for 2FA? Please, please, God do not use it to market to me.

Don't throw up a banner because I blocked your ads. I blocked your ads because, at this point, they're intrusive and they're a security risk. I'll root around and filter out the DOM node for your nag banner though. At this point, the only ads I see are on the jerseys of NBA players, but I seem to have developed banner blindness for those.

Let these things be opt in. You're a company, you're a political campaign and you want money or a vote. Outreach isn't about maintaining a relationship, it's about insisting on future transactions. It's insisting that someone engage with you when they would do so if they *cared to*.

So, while it's burdensome, I'm going to keep opting out. I'll screen out emails, I'll block them, I'll unsubscribe, I'll report them as spam. I'll reply with `STOP` to unsubscribe (again and again and again). I'll refuse direct mailers, I'll block ads, I'll block the banners that spring up in their place.

If I *need* something I'll buy it — I'll seek it out but if you insist upon my attention, if you make a pitch or a hard sale I'm going to walk away. It's reflexive.

I devote time to things I care deeply about. I'll chase them, I'll seek them out and I'll invest in them. Everyone does that to some degree or another. There is so much insistence and intrusion that opting out becomes both laborious and necessary.

An economy built on demanding attention is, frankly, hellish.

I'll keep weeding that garden and, I'll probably never be done, but hopefully it'll get better eventually.