Aardvark Daily aardvark (ard'-vark) a controversial animal with a long probing nose used for sniffing out the facts and stimulating thought and discussion.

NZ's leading source of Net-Industry news and commentary since 1995
Australasia's "New Economy" News And Commentary Site
Headlines | XML feed | Contact | New Sites | Archives | Job Centre | MARKETPLACE | For Sale
Note: This column represents the opinions of the writer and as such, is not purported as fact
Get Votes Fa$t? 20 May 2002 Edition
Previous Edition | Archives

Million $ Ideas
At last, the contents of Aardvark's "million-dollar ideas" notebook are revealed for all to see!
Click To See
As I've highlighted on numerous occasions in this colum, when it comes to making proper use of the internet our politicians have shown themselves not to be the sharpest knives in the drawer.

It was this thought, and reports that the ACT party are beginning to spam people, that I undertook a quick check of what these dull blades are up to.

I should now state that I'm not a member of any political party and quite frankly consider that the coming election will be a case of choosing the lesser of many evils. My comments are apolitical insomuch as I have no idea who I'm going to vote for and my comments are based solely on my observations as to how the parties are running their mailing lists.

Other Recent Columns
If you've just discovered Aardvark, check out some of the earlier editions by viewing the archives or by clicking on one of this small selection:

List Terminology
Before I continue, here are some basic terms often used to describe email mailing lists for the benefit of those who are perhaps not familiar with the terminlology I'm about to use:

  • Single Opt-In -- allows any email address to be subscribed without any attempt to confirm that the true owner of the address is the one who actually subscribed. This lack of confirmation makes single-opt-in lists vulnerable to abuse by evil sods who sign up others without their knowledge or permission. These lists are unethical and are frequently (ab)used to annoy innocent parties.

  • Double Opt-In -- checks the authenticity of a subscription request by sending a confirmation email to the subscribed address and not activating the subscription until the recipient responds in the affirmative. This is the only ethical way to operate a mailing list.

  • Opt-Out -- provides simple instructions to allow people to unsubscribe themselves -- all email lists should have this facility. Also refers to lists where your email address has been arbitrarily added by the list operator on the presumption that if you don't want to receive emailings you'll take yourself off.
ACT
Checking the ACT website I found that they have a large number of lists that can be subscribed to.

Unfortunately, ACT are displaying their stupidity by running these lists as single-opt in. Perhaps they have chosen this approach, instead of the more ethical double-opt-in method as a way of defending themselves against spamming allegations.

No doubt those who complain that they're being spammed will be told "well someone must have signed you up -- it's not our fault." This is even worse than blatant spamming!

Who's going to be first to sign up the entire Labour party I wonder?

But wait, it gets worse! Within minutes of subscribing, I received an email that welcomed me to the list -- but it offered no automated way of unsubscribing.

This is attrocious! Not only can someone subscribe you to ACT's 30 or so lists with just a few clicks of their mouse -- any victim unfortunate to be the target of such abuse will likely have to engage in goodness knows what type of hassle just to get themselves taken off.

Sorry ACT -- you claim you won't be spamming but I have documented instances of people who did not request your material, being sent it by email -- and that's spam! You also run a list that seemingly breaks all the rules of good mailing list practice -- and you expect us to believe that you could run a country?

Readers Say
(updated hourly)
  • Unfair castigation... - John
  • Government & IT... - Ian
  • Have Your Say

    National
    Through the front page of their website, National encourages people to "register for free weekly updates" simply by typing in their name and email address.

    Unfortunately, since this is another single-opt-in list, it could be anyone's email address (time to sign up all of the labour party again?)

    And, just like their peers over at ACT, the emails that start coming from National are devoid of any opt-out facility. They're even cheeky enough to suggest that you forward copies of their mailings to your friends and encourage them to sign up too.

    But what else could we expect from a party that continues to offer Maurice Williamson as their IT spokesman and presumably, if they were elected to government, their IT Minister?

    The Greens
    I signed up for the GreenWeek email newsletter using the form found on the Greens website.

    Unfortunately I've not yet received anything from them so I don't know if they have an automated opt-out facility but, given the fact that I haven't received a "please confirm" email, I can only assume that this is yet another single opt-in list -- or perhaps the person responsible for typing up the list on a recycled Commodore 64 has died. After all, the example they offer is nearly a year old.

    Labour
    Although I've criticised Labour in the past for their general internet dullardry, I have to admit that they've seemingly done a wonderful job in setting up their mailing list.

    Although it was a little harder to find, the Labour/government "Beehive Bulletin" email list is double-opt in and also includes a password system for added authentication along with details of their automated opt-out facility.

    In short, they've done everything right and left no room for complaints at all (damn!).

    Alliance
    The sign-up for the "Red & Green eNews is on the front page of the Alliance website but it doesn't ask for your name -- just your email address.

    So far I've received no response from my subscription request which generally indicates that this is going to be a single opt-in list (tsk, tsk). And, since I've yet to receive anything for my efforts, I can't say whether or not there's an opt-out facility, although once again, if the sign-up isn't automated there's little reason to believe that the opt-out would be either.

    NZ First
    The signup form on the NZ First website won't let you sign up without also providing a phone number and postal address. It also assumes that you want to make a donation.

    As with Alliance, no confirmation email was received so it's probably a single opt-in list with limited opt-out facilities.

    Privacy Policies
    Any website that requests information from its visitors should have a privacy policy so that people know exactly what's going to be done with their details.

    Of all the parties surveyed here, only National and NZ First either didn't have a privacy policy or it was so well concealed that I couldn't find it.

    I have to wonder however, whether the dates assigned to the policies on Labour's Legal page are intentionally post-dated? (screendump) -- there, I knew I'd be able to poke some borax at Labour eventually :-)

    Cultural Sensitivity -- What Cultural Sensitivity?
    Given all the attention being given to the nation's obligation to preserve and foster Maori culture, plus the fact that Maori is an "official language," I was surprised to see that none of the parties were offering anything other than an English version of their emailed lists.

    In Summary
    What a shocking report card for most of our political parties. Labour is the only one to get top marks and ACT, the party that continues to deny its intentions to spam has already done so -- either by intent or neglect.

    Let's hope those parties running single opt-in lists come to their senses in double-quick time and start acting responsibly.

    However, I would not hold your breath that the rogue parties will have a sudden fit of netiquette -- after all, what's in it for them?

    There's a discussion running on NewsBox about today's column. Feel free to join in and express your views. (Note: Newsbox.co.nz is a separate site not owned or operated by Aardvark.)

    Let's Get NZ Noticed
    Virtual Kiwi
Vote Don't forget to help push the Kiwi boat out at the Webby awards. Click the graphic to register a vote in The Peoples' Choice Award .

    Have Your Say
    As always, your comments are welcomed. Please remember to select "For Publication" if you want them included on this site.

    Have your say.

    Add Aardvark To Your Own Website!
    Got a moment? Want a little extra fresh content for your own website or page?

    Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

    Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

    Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

    Linking Policy
    Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

    Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!

    Latest
    Security Alerts
    Security flaw in Microsoft Office for Mac (CNet - 18/04/2002)

    A trio of MS-Office security vulns (TheReg - 10/04/2002)

    Two new "critical" bugs patched in IE (ZDNet - 01/04/2002)

    Second Java hole poses Windows risk (CNet - 20/03/2002)

    Microsoft offers patch for Java software (CNet - 06/03/2002)

    Latest
    Virus Alerts
    Teddy hoax virus looking to play Down Under (ZDNet - 19/05/2002)

    New Klez worm squirms across Internet (CNet - 18/04/2002)

    Aphex E-mail Worm Has A Way With IRC, Instant Messenger (NewsBytes - 11/04/2002)

    Bookmark This Page Now!

     

    MORE NEWS
    NZL Sites
    IDG.Net.nz
    NZ Netguide
    NZ Herald Tech
    PC World NZ
    Scoop
    NZOOM Technology WordWorx

    AUS Sites
    ZDNet
    Fairfax IT
    Australian IT
    AUS Netguide
    NineMSN Tech
    APC Magazine

    USA Sites
    Wired.com
    CNet
    CNNfn Tech
    TechWeb
    Yahoo Tech
    ZDNet Tech
    USA Today Tech
    7am.com SciTech

    UK Sites
    The Register
    BBC SciTech

     

    The Day's Top News
    Open in New Window = open in new window
    New Zealand

    Open in New Window Prospects bleak for jobless
    Prospects are bleak for many of the people laid off from the IT and telecommunications industry over the past year...
    Stuff

    Open in New Window ACT party may jeopardise e-bill
    The Electronic Transactions Bill, regarded as a vital underpinning of e-government and knowledge economy initiatives, could be in jeopardy if the ACT Party insists on full debate of a raft of technical objections...
    Stuff

    Other

    Open in New Window The DMCA Is the Toast of D.C.
    Champagne was flowing freely in room B-340 of the Rayburn House office building on Thursday afternoon as scores of politicos gathered to toast a controversial copyright law...
    Wired

    Open in New Window Senate toughens up on spam
    A bill aimed at limiting unwanted junk e-mail was approved and sent to the floor by the Senate Commerce Committee on Friday with unanimous support from Democrats and Republicans...
    CNet

    Open in New Window DeCSS banned again
    In another setback for free speech advocates, hacker magazine 2600 has lost its bid for an appeal of a ruling banning it from posting code that can be used to crack DVD copy protections...
    ZDNet

    Open in New Window Hackers Expose Consumer Info from Ford, Experian
    Ford Motor Credit has informed 13,000 consumers that their personal information -- including Social Security number, address, account number and payment history -- was accessed by hackers who broke into a database belonging to the Experian credit reporting agency...
    NewsFactor

    Open in New Window Napster Now Bertelsmann's Baby
    Konrad Hilbers and Shawn Fanning are back and so is Napster: German media giant Bertelsmann turns an about-face and buys the company for $8 million...
    Wired

    Australia

    Open in New Window Optus hints at capped plans
    OPTUS says it is "looking at" usage-based plans for its cable internet access...
    Australian IT

    Open in New Window Australian ISP guideline inches closer
    A guideline aimed at helping consumers make informed decisions when choosing an ISP looks set to be finalised within the next couple of months....
    ZDNet

    Other

    Open in New Window Linux lands big Reuters win
    Reuters is soon to announce plans to bring its financial information software to Linux in conjunction with Red Hat, Intel and Hewlett-Packard,...
    ZDNet

    Open in New Window ISP: File swappers pay extra
    U.K. Internet service provider PlusNet announced on Friday that is launching a lower-priced broadband product...
    ZDNet

    Open in New Window Are you the Klez monster?
    t may only be a matter of time before you're accused of spreading the Klez virus...
    CNet

    Open in New Window Laws of physics 'may change'
    The Universe may be a stranger place than we imagined because of new evidence that appears to show the very laws of physics have changed since the cosmos was young...
    BBC

    Open in New Window Consortium Created To Improve Software Reliability
    Carnegie Mellon University and a coalition of government agencies and information technology firms May 16 in Washington, D.C., announced the creation of the Sustainable Computing Consortium, a collaborative effort to protect the United States computing infrastructure and improve the reliability of U.S. IT systems...
    NewsBytes


    Looking For More News or Information?

    Google
    Search WWW Search Aardvark

    Privacy Policy | Copyright © 2002, Bruce Simpson, republication rights available on request

    jet engine page