CDT's Privacy Policy

The Center for Democracy and Technology has created the Operation Opt-Opt web site to help consumers retake control of their personal information. We have attempted to do this by making it easier for you to opt-out of information sharing that goes on with different companies and organizations. This includes credit reporting agencies, post office junk mailers, and online profiling companies. We DO NOT provide links to or endorse any form of unsolicited email address opt-out.

If you have received a piece of spam (junk e-mail) telling you to come to this web site to get your email address removed from a marketing list, we're sorry, but CDT still has not found a reliable way to get you off these lists. In all reality, it is probably too late to do anything by opting out of junk e-mail distribution lists. Unfortunately, if you ever try to opt-out of an email address list that you did not sign up for, it will probably not help. In many cases, you may get even more junk email, since you have now confirmed that email to your address is actually being read.

If you receive spam, we suggest that you take these steps:

1. Forward the spam to the Federal Trade Commission at uce@ftc.gov. The FTC will not take direct action on your report, but they will use it to generate statistics about unsolicited commercial e-mail. Information can be found at http://www.ftc.gov/os/2001/04/unsolicommemail.htm
    
2. File a complaint with the Internet Service Provider of the sender of the message, as well as the ISPs of any of the related web sites mentioned in the message. The Spamcop service, available in both free and for-pay options, is a useful tool in helping figure out where to file complaints. http://spamcop.net
    
3. If the spam contains information about a pyramid scheme, investment club, or your "financial strength;" be aware that "Ponzi schemes" are illegal under US law. Details can be found at the United States Postal Service web site at http://new.usps.com/cgi-bin/uspsbv/scripts/content.jsp?D=25279.
    
4. If the spam concerns the "419 scam", also known as the "Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud", fax the message to the United States Secret Service at (202) 406-5031. Information about this can be found at http://www.treas.gov/usss/index.htm?alert419.htm&1 or on the State Department's web site at http://travel.state.gov/tips_nigeria.html.
    

Ideally, any organization who wants to email you will get your permission in advance to contact you via email. They should not assume they can email you just because your email address was listed on a business card, web page, mailing list, or discussion group.

If you have any questions about this, or about the spam you received that mentions this web site, please forward it, with the full headers intact, to CDT's webmaster at webmaster@cdt.org. Thank you.