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FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

(www.ftc.gov)
1737 points pseudolus | 5 comments | 16 Oct 24 13:09 UTC | HN request time: 0.776s | source
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Uehreka ◴[16 Oct 24 15:57 UTC] No.41860626[source]▶
When people try and say that regulating stuff like this is impossible, I often think about how unreasonably great the regulations around “Unsubscribe” links in emails are.

There really seems to be no loophole or workaround despite there being huge incentive for there to be one. Every time I click an “Unsubscribe” link in an email (it seems like they’re forced to say “Unsubscribe” and not use weasel words to hide the link) I’m either immediately unsubscribed from the person who sent me the email, or I’m taken to a page which seemingly MUST have a “remove me from all emails” option.

The level of compliance (and they can’t even do malicious compliance!) with this is absurd. If these new rules work anything like that, they’ll be awesome. Clearly regulating behavior like this is indeed possible.

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inetknght ◴[16 Oct 24 17:45 UTC] No.41861722[source]▶
> I often think about how unreasonably great the regulations around “Unsubscribe” links in emails are.

The sheer number of comments that think the state of "unsubscribe" is good is... saddening. I should not have to click a link to "unsubscribe" from something that I did not subscribe to. There's no recourse for me against these thieves.

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1. Bjartr ◴[16 Oct 24 17:52 UTC] No.41861788[source]▶
The state of Unsubscribe is good. Imagine how much worse things would be if legit businesses had no reason to make it easy to unsubscribe in such a consistent way like we do today.

That other problems also exist doesn't mean this solution for this thing isn't good.

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2. kelnos ◴[16 Oct 24 19:06 UTC] No.41862637[source]▶
Sure, but imagine how much better it would be if any business (legit or not) could not send marketing emails to us at all without our prior, affirmative, non-coerced consent.

The state of Unsubscribe is better than what it was before the laws around it went into effect, but it doesn't go far enough.

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3. consteval ◴[16 Oct 24 20:15 UTC] No.41863380[source]▶
This, to me, is a technical problem. The issue is the design of email means that it's vulnerable to spam. If someone knows your email, you WILL get spam.

There's technical workarounds, too. Like unique emails for each and every service.

4. bjoli ◴[16 Oct 24 20:44 UTC] No.41863671[source]▶
I Had an issue with sixt (car rental). To unsubscribe I had to send a copy of my friggin passport to an address in Germany.

I instead used GDPR to request a removal of all my data. That worked.

5. ironmagma ◴[17 Oct 24 08:55 UTC] No.41867678[source]▶
It's okay. Sometimes when you click the Unsubscribe link you have to enter your email (log in), and sometimes you have to fill out a form, which may or may not be serviceable. There is room for dark patterns here, and dark patterns are used. We're hardly out of the woods with Unsubscribe.