Who Opts-In?

Nearly every spam message caught by my junk mail filter seems to have a disclaimer saying that at some point I asked to receive it.

"You are receiving this advertising message from sendmecrap.com because you have registered with us or one of our marketing partners. Sendmecrap.com is an email delivery service and does not sponsor and/or otherwise endorse the products and/or services advertised above."

Notices like these are one of the many components that SpamButcher uses to filter spam.

That's funny, I don't remember signing up for anything. But, with all the online purchases and other forms I've filled out online, maybe I did a box checked I shouldn't have. Presumably, I have the legal right to consent to receiving spam, even if it's out of my own negligence.

Still, I'd bet that most people who make such claims didn't really get my address from an opt-in list.

Part of the problem is that the burden of proof is always on the accuser. Even if sending spam to someone without prior consent were illegal, it may be near impossible to enforce. I'm sure the good people at sendmecrap.com can't prove that they got my name from an opt-in list. However, I'm also sure that I couldn't prove that they didn't.

I'm not sure if it's possible to get around this issue in a constitutional fashion. Perhaps a law could be passed requiring senders to have record on file of exactly where they got each address from.

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