India Uncut
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Thursday, December 15, 2005
"No more Bluffmaster ringtones"
Prabhu is upset at the contant barrage of promotional SMS messages he is getting from Hutch, and I sympathise entirely. These messages come at a cost to users -- they disturb them in the middle of work, and take up a fair bit of time when you add them all up -- and sending them without consent amounts to both theft and coercion. One might suggest an opt-out option, but I'm not comfortable with the default assumption of the users' preferences being consent.
I think, instead, that there should be an opt-in necessary on part of the customer at the time when he signs up for the service, with a simple procedure to change that option, specified in every promotional message. The service provider is welcome to offer a slight discount to users who opt in to receive these messages (in other words, charging a slight premium to those who opt out), but everything should be transparent and upfront, at the time of signing for the service, and with every bill. Tell the customers exactly what you're offering them, and let them decide whether they should go to someone else or not.
I'll end this post here, my phone just beeped. Must be something important.
I think, instead, that there should be an opt-in necessary on part of the customer at the time when he signs up for the service, with a simple procedure to change that option, specified in every promotional message. The service provider is welcome to offer a slight discount to users who opt in to receive these messages (in other words, charging a slight premium to those who opt out), but everything should be transparent and upfront, at the time of signing for the service, and with every bill. Tell the customers exactly what you're offering them, and let them decide whether they should go to someone else or not.
I'll end this post here, my phone just beeped. Must be something important.
