Courtesy of this article at slate.com
I have two Expedia accounts. I'd like only one Expedia account, because, well, why would I need two? Deleting that second account is (for a person like me) nigh on impossible because it includes a phone call and an extended wait in a hold queue (I did wait in the hold queue for 10 minutes, which really is a long time to be in a hold queue to delete an account off the internet; avoiding human contact like this is why we created the internet in the first place).
So here enters JustDelete.Me, a website that tells us how to delete our web accounts from various popular web sites.
In an era where customer information is incredibly valuable (so too are ongoing consumer communication channels), we should expect that rational, self-interested companies will make it relatively difficult for us to delete our accounts.
Perhaps though, unless the industry self-regulates (unlikely, given the fragmented and global nature of e-commerce), we will see something similar to the regime imposed by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 which ensures that Americans, with relative ease, can unsubscribe from commercial emailing lists.
Maybe. Until then, I guess I'm going to have two Expedia accounts. And an unused old Skype account. And an abandoned Hotmail account.
I have two Expedia accounts. I'd like only one Expedia account, because, well, why would I need two? Deleting that second account is (for a person like me) nigh on impossible because it includes a phone call and an extended wait in a hold queue (I did wait in the hold queue for 10 minutes, which really is a long time to be in a hold queue to delete an account off the internet; avoiding human contact like this is why we created the internet in the first place).
So here enters JustDelete.Me, a website that tells us how to delete our web accounts from various popular web sites.
In an era where customer information is incredibly valuable (so too are ongoing consumer communication channels), we should expect that rational, self-interested companies will make it relatively difficult for us to delete our accounts.
Perhaps though, unless the industry self-regulates (unlikely, given the fragmented and global nature of e-commerce), we will see something similar to the regime imposed by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 which ensures that Americans, with relative ease, can unsubscribe from commercial emailing lists.
Maybe. Until then, I guess I'm going to have two Expedia accounts. And an unused old Skype account. And an abandoned Hotmail account.
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