EU privacy boogeyman unleashed by the very people with boogeyman-slaying weapons

See it first hand, it is 'the way' apparently

"They are concerned that asking people to tick a box to opt in to mailing lists, rather than assuming they are happy to opt in unless they specifically opt out, would dramatically reduce the number of possible contacts for fundraisers. “Think of the charities,” seems to be the message to ministers."

I work for a charity, with a fundraising department and was met with glares of near hatred, whenever I highlighted that we weren't doing ourselves any favours by employing unscrupulous tactics like that.

Anon, to reduce my chances of having the "disrepute" conversation, again.

Opt out/in

Most people with an email account have become immune to mass mailings (be they ever so targeted).

For me, the obnoxious mailers get put into the spam category and the worthy ones get manually deleted after reading the title (it seems more polite to do it that way).

Sow the wind...

... assuming they are happy to opt in unless they specifically opt out

They really should have thought a lot harder over the years about the potential consequences of taking liberties with users data and consent, and ask whether maybe one day there would be a backlash. Well here it is, and thanks to the selfish fucking attitude demonstrated over the years, I doubt they'll find much sympathy for a continuation.

Sending endless material to people who really don't want it always struck me as shortsighted however you look at it; either regulation will catch up with you eventually, or you'll just be added to punters internal blacklist of annoyances and blanked along with the other irritating drivel modern commerce contrives to chuck at us, uninvited.

"Think of the Charities"

Is this "think of the children" 2.0 ?