optout.ie

El Camino

Hi all,

I was just wondering if anyone has previously used optout.ie http://www.optout.ie/ as a means of allowing customers to opt-out from receiving further marketing communicatinos from your business?

I've recently received a link to this site in a marketing text message which i received and thought it was quite an innovative idea.

Haas anyone any experiences with using this and do you have any contact details for the database controller?

blue4ever

Personally - I wouldn't touch it. Seriously opting out - you can do that yourself on every sms message - or the service provider can be heavily panellised if it doesn't have that facility.

This is a one page site, no informmation like about us, contact us, who we are - more importantly, why we are doing this.

I'd prefer to stick my personal details on a 48 sheet poster!

The domain is registered to a Touchbase Technology Limited. A company under the same name who have a site and do deal in sms - but also have an application that is a CRM for car dealers - a market that optout seems to concentrates on.

Maybe its a bit of paranoia on my behalf - but i'll pass this time.

Dakor

I'd have to agree with blue4ever, I wouldn't put my details in there. It looks like a scrapper for personal info.

You just need to reply 'stop' to any commercial SMS message that you get in order to opt out.

El Camino

That's just it though guys.

'STOP' only applies to Premium SMS services and actually is not mandatory for commercial messages. It has just become common practice in certain areas. I've seen various test reply keywords such as 'no more' 'out' etc being used instead of STOP in the past. I've also seen instances of phone numbers to call to opt-out instead and they seem to be acceptable also. In the UK there are a number of schemes such as this one in place and they seem to operate ok.

I'm just considering alternatives at this point and take your points on regarding this site and its concentration on car services. However, the message that i received from a reputable service provider (as far as i'm aware) couldn't be further from this motor industry.

If there was a trustworthy service of this nature allowing cusotmers to opt-out in this manner it could be useful across a number of industries.

blue4ever

El, every organisation has to conform to comreg/regtle and data protection.

"However, the message that i received from a reputable service provider (as far as i'm aware) couldn't be further from this motor industry"

???? the service provider is a conduit to the end user - they would work in every market - so, just because someone is selling car servicing, its not their fault, they relay the message (to a point)

Lastly, to quote from Hamlet:

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"

and funny, so do I - I think you are peddling.

ectoraige

There's a problem with the "STOP" system as implemented by some of the service providers. The providers rent keywords to different companies but use the same text number for them all.

So Joe's Cars might have the keyword JOECAR, while Carl's Carpet's have the keyword SHAGGY. Both of these subscription services use the same number e.g. 55555, and crucially, their ads say "to cancel text STOP to 55555". This is fine until a user happens to have signed up to both services. If he wants to quit one of them, there isn't a way to specify which service he wants to unsubscribe from. At least one service provider I know of just removes you from the last service you subscribed too when this occurs.

It is of course solved trivially by having "STOP SHAGGY" or "STOP JOECAR" as the unsubscribe method, but for reasons beyond me, this doesn't seem to be done.

El Camino

I agree there are various issues with the use of STOP and how service providers actually process these.

My initial query was with the use of this site and whether it would be acceptable as a means of opt-out. Branding on the site etc is rather poor and it's not very clear where your data is going once you enter it in there, which is a bit worrying. The idea however, of a centralised opt-out facility for various markets is an interesting idea though...

Blue - my reference to SP above was an error i should have stated retailer. It's obviously the retailer that has chosen a particulr opt-out method. Completely agree the SP is just the conduit in that scenario.

Def not pedalling though. It's just hard to get other views on such things and this is the forum for such advice.

Thanks

new shoes

Looks dodge.. wudnt go near it..

El Camino

After further investigation it doesn't appear to be the most progessional set-up. It would really raise more questions about what they are actually doing with the data that they gather and retain.

I'll be staying clear but if anyone hears of this site being used in other adverts i'd be interested to hear so please post updates if you have any.

Cheers.