I know, this weekly roundup thing ought to be renamed 'sporadic roundup'. I'm working full time again in my 'real' job and have been busy moving office. Things should quiet down a bit after next week. I hope.

Anyway, here's an update on the campaign!

New website: stopjunkcalls.org.uk

That's right, we're branching out! Stop Junk Calls UK has been set up by someone who has been involved in the campaign for some time and who knows everything there's to know about stopping unsolicited phone calls. At the moment the website is mainly a forum where you can report unsolicited phone calls. Over time, though, it will become an invaluable source of information about how to stop the pest. Please do report any junk calls you get.

In the news: solutions for calling calling

My own involvement in setting up the Stop Junk Calls UK website was limited to techie things such as setting up the hosting and writing a couple of short news stories about junk calls. The main story in recent weeks was a 'Robocalls Challenge' organised by the American Federal Trade Commission. It seems that the most feasible technical solution for preventing junk calls involves setting up a central database and getting phones to check if a number is white, grey or blacklisted. It doesn't sound too promising, in particular because it's so damn easy for junk callers to spoof phone numbers.

Also interesting, and probably a much more effective solution, is a proposal put forward by Adrian Kennard. He has set up a petition calling for a change in the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations that would allow people to fine cold callers £50 for every breach of the Regulations. I'm pretty sure this would make telemarketeers very reluctant to phone numbers that are registered with the Telephone Preference Service. The Direct Marketing Association is opposed to the idea, which is always an indication that it's an effective solution indeed.

What part of 'no spam' don't you understand?

Also interesting is this article by an IT guy who once worked for a company that refused to recognise that its unsolicited e-mails were unsolicited e-mails. It's something senders of any type of unsolicited marketing seem to suffer from; they rarely see their own "communications" as unsolicited junk. Companies that specialise in sending spam often feel that its e-mails are okay because they're better targeted than e-mails advertising Viagra. Cold callers often reckon they're fine because they don't use silent calls and/or because they allow people to opt out. Leaflet deliverers often ignore 'No Junk Mail' signs because they assume the leaflets they deliver aren't junk mail (estate agents spring to mind). If you've ever complained about unsolicited marketing I'm sure you've come across excuses like these, and it wouldn't surprise me if the offender got angry with you for complaining. If so, the article gives an interesting insight into the mindset of such marketeers.

Now, back to unpacking boxes!

Spam from Thomson Local?

This Friday I received the following (anonomous) e-mail from someone who used Junk Buster to cancel the Thomson Local directory:

I registered to stop receiving Thompson Directory - and now I get a weekly spam mail from Thomson, telling me the various online services that I can use as alternatives to the paper directory.

The Thompson spam comes from David Meikle:
david.meikle@thomsonlocal.com

I feel like an idiot for providing an actual email address.

I haven't had any similar complaints. If the spam e-mails are the result of asking Thomson Local not to deliver the directory any more they're in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. Organisations in the UK can only send you 'marketing e-mails' if you've agreed to receiving them. Clearly, that's not the case here. I'd recommend lodging a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office.

In any case, I'll write to David Meikle next week to see what he's got to say.

New stamper still on its way

Last week I was hoping the new return to sender stamper would by now be in the shop. It will take a couple more days, though I have now received a sample:

Modern times

Two weeks ago I mentioned I had asked juicypeanut to close my Technorati account. I've now sent four e-mails in total, and the account still exists… I'm thinking about making Account Killer Stop Junk Mail's next cause.

Defra keen to keep quiet

On Tuesday I should have received information from Defra about the implementation of the Door-Drop Preference Service. As you may recall, it's the opt-out website that was to be launched by the Direct Marketing Association in April as part of a 'responsibility deal' between Defra and the junk mail industry. The website wasn't launched, and a Freedom of Information request I submitted to Defra in May revealed why; the two parties disagreed about what they had agreed. Since, Defra hasn't said a word about what it's doing to resolve the situation. My latest Freedom of Information request is an attempt to force them to be a bit more open.

Defra did contact me on Tuesday, but only to say that they need twenty more working days to provide me with the information I requested. The official reason is the complexity and volume of the information I've asked for. The real reason is that they don't like it when people take an interest in what they're doing (or not doing) behind closed doors. I'm pretty sure that all I'll get from them early next month is a bunch of copies of e-mails - it's what I got from them in response to my previous Freedom of Information requests. Any donkey can print a couple of e-mails in minutes but Defra needs no less than 40 working days.

New stamper on its way

By this time next week I should have return to sender stampers in stock again. It will be a different stamper; the text on the stamp has changed and the stamper itself will made from 100% recycled plastic.

The text on the old stamper read:

"RETURN TO SENDER"®
Junk mail not wanted at this address.
Please remove this address from your database.

There were a couple of things I didn't like about this text. The quotes around 'Return to sender' are obviously redundant, and the registered trademark sign looks rather pretentious. The rest of the text reveals a lack of understanding about stopping junk mail on the part of the company that produced the stamper. As anyone who has ever sent a data protection notice knows, you can only ask junk mailers to remove your details from a junk mailer's database. Asking them not to send junk mail to anyone at your address is desperately optimistic; I can't see any junk mailer making the effort to check if there might be anyone else living at your address that could be taken off the junk mail list. It's a detail - but detail matters.

This time I designed the stamp myself:

Simple designs are usually the best… As said, the new stampers should be in the shop later this week .

Observer Tree cyber celebration

Until the end of the year Stop Junk Mail is raising money for The ObserverTree (by donating 10% of sales to the cause). I haven't said much about this fantastic campaign on this blog but am pleased I can now give it a mention; The ObserverTree will this week celebrate its one year anniversary.

I'm not sure if 'celebrate' is the right word. Had the campaign achieved its aim an ancient forest in Tasmania would by now be safe from a Malaysian logging company (Ta Ann) and conservationist / campaigner Miranda Gibson would no longer be living in a tree in the heart of the forest. When she climbed up the tree almost a year ago she vowed she wouldn't come down until the forest was protected - it's sad she's still there.

Anyway, to mark the occasion a cyber celebration is planned for Friday 14 December from 7.30am (UK time). I haven't quite figured out myself how to join the party but will certainly try to do so.

I haven't written much blog entries lately. There's no particular reason for that. Sometimes there's just nothing much to report, other times I'm too busy with other things. Anyway, to keep this space interesting I'll try something new… a weekly roundup.

It's probably wise to start with a disclaimer. The idea for a weekly roundup popped up in my head only half an hour ago - and spontaneous ideas tend to disappear off the radar as quickly as they appeared on it. I'm really not too sure I'll be writing something every Sunday.

Dear juicypeanut

On the subject of spontaneous ideas that don't quite work out, just this morning I tried to close a Technorati account I opened a couple of months ago. I joined because I reckoned it could be an alternative for Google Blog Search (breaking ties with Google is an ongoing project) but I was wrong; Technorati seems to be just another Web 2.0 Hot or Not Contest. Anyway, closing my account turned out to be rather difficult - there's no 'Close account' button. After a bit of DuckDuckGoing I came across a website called Account Killer which directed me to the instructions. To close a Technorati account you need to send a 'please close my account' e-mail to someone called 'juicypeanut'. I've accepted it as my punishment for not checking how easy it would be to close an account beforehand.

ICO has done something useful

After all the furore about the (factually incorrect) news that one in two letters delivered by Royal Mail is now junk mail there wasn't any noteworthy junk mail news this week. Luckily, we did have an interesting story about spam; the Information Commissioner's Office has fined two marketeers who "plagued the public with millions of unlawful spam texts over the past three years". It's the first time the ICO has taken action against spammers and it seems they thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The press release is a surprisingly interesting read, and it mentions they're already considering taking action against three other marketeers. There's still hope.

Selling hampers

Equally important is that there's a new item in Stop Junk Mail's sticker shop: a Mini Junk Mail Hamper. The hamper itself is one of my beautiful, hand made, unique, and re-usable junk mail envelopes; and inside the 'hamper' you'll find an anti-junk mail and 'No Cold Callers' sticker of your choice as well as a pad with return to sender labels. All that will cost you just £2 - saving you 75p!

I know, I'm hopeless at selling… Maybe marketing is an art after all. (I'm joking, of course.)

Help!

Since this Saturday Stop Junk Mail is finally an unincorporated association. It de facto had been one for a while but it's now formal. The main reason for the change is that it should make it easier to get more people involved in the campaign. There are plenty of unfinished junk mail related projects sitting on the shelve (that's what happens with spontaneous ideas); I'm hoping that some of these project can be taken up by others. If you're interested in joining the battle against junk mail, there's now also a page with information about getting involved.

Application for something

Finally, this weekend I've been working on an application for… something. I can't yet reveal what it is I've applied for but can tell that it's something I'm more than a little interested in. It's another thing that came up suddenly - but not something that would be shelved or disappear off the radar any time soon.

Who knows more next week!

There's a new product in the Sticker Shop: 'No Cold Callers' stickers. I'm hoping Stop Junk Mail will increasingly cover more kinds of unsolicited marketing than 'just' junk mail. These stickers are, I hope, just the start.

As always, the design is simple-but-effective. The stickers are small enough to be placed just above or below a doorbell - which is of course the best place to put a doorbell sticker. And, because they're small they're cheap; I'm hoping to sell them for just 60p each. Buy now before I put the price up!

• Buy a white 'No Cold Callers' sticker
• Buy a red 'No Cold Callers' sticker

If you don't have an anti-junk mail sticker yet there's an even better deal: for £1.20 you get a letterbox sticker and a doorbell sticker:

• stopjunkmail.org.uk/stickers/no_cold_callers.php