I hope you will read Net Attitude. In 2001, I said that a good net attitude is to give users or prospective users the choice to “opt-in” to an email list. A lack of net attitude is to get your email address from some source and opt you in without your consent. If you get opted in, you should at least find it very simple to opt-out or unsubscribe. One click. I said consumers will remember these factors and they have long memories. Fifteen years later, in my new version of Net Attitude, I say, unfortunately, the same thing.

This morning, I received an email about mortgage financing. At the bottom, the mail said, “You are receiving this email because your email address has been verified by one of our affiliate partners”. In other words, they purchased (or stole) my email address. I clicked unsubscribe. A page appeared asking me to fill in the email address I want to unsubscribe. The obvious answer is the email address I want to unsubscribe is the one they sent it to. Instead they are imposing extra keystrokes on me. Like many people, I have more than one email address and the unwanted email did not show in the “To” address. I clicked the unsubscribe link three times and entered my most used three email addresses. After each unsubscribe action, the webpage displayed, “We have received your request for [email protected]. Please allow up to 10 days for processing.” Ten days. Amazon can deliver a product to you in less than 24 hours. The mortgage website needs up to ten days to remove an email address from a list. Everything about Harploanqualified.com in Scottsdale, Arizona is net attitude – not.