[HN Gopher] Visa's marketing opt-out has been down for over a we...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Visa's marketing opt-out has been down for over a week. Is this a
       legal issue?
        
       Author : robertwiblin
       Score  : 369 points
       Date   : 2022-03-29 17:04 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (marketingreportoptout.visa.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (marketingreportoptout.visa.com)
        
       | go_prodev wrote:
       | So has Adobe's too apparently
        
         | exikyut wrote:
         | What's the URL?
        
         | leros wrote:
         | It wouldn't surprise me if it's a third party system just
         | hosted on a subdomain of visa and adobe.
        
       | mikece wrote:
       | The credit card companies make so much money that reimbursing
       | fraudulent transactions is almost a rounding error -- which is
       | why they aren't in a rush to spend the money to implement chip
       | and PIN security. Given this attitude I'm guessing someone
       | already ran the cost/benefit analysis of pivoting engineering
       | teams to fix the opt-out website versus just paying a fine -- and
       | that paying lawyers to contest any fine they might ever get came
       | out on the winning side of the ledger.
        
         | Johnny555 wrote:
         | _The credit card companies make so much money that reimbursing
         | fraudulent transactions is almost a rounding error_
         | 
         | The credit card companies (i.e. Visa) don't reimburse fraud,
         | they leave that to the issuing banks (i.e. Chase, Capital One,
         | etc.... whoever you got your card from)
        
           | anonymousiam wrote:
           | American Express handles their own fraud cases. Their cards
           | are generally not issued by banks. I have no association with
           | them other than being a card member since 1982, but their
           | customer service is far better than Visa/MC, and yes, you can
           | get a card from them with no annual fees + perks.
        
             | Johnny555 wrote:
             | _their customer service is far better than Visa /MC_
             | 
             | I used to think that (and maybe it was true once), but
             | haven't found that to be the case, I've had far better
             | experience from Chase for my Sapphire card.
             | 
             | My wife recently ran into a problem with a booking through
             | Amex's own travel service, the hotel said they had a
             | reservation, but not payment, but we paid for the room at
             | Amex travel. So we figured no problem, just pay the hotel
             | directly (their rate was even lower than Amex) and call
             | Amex to have them remove their charge.
             | 
             | It took 5 calls over several days to finally talk to
             | someone who could help, and it still took 3 days for the
             | charge to be reversed. And this is for a Platinum card.
        
               | aidenn0 wrote:
               | IMO AmEx is still better than most banks, but my Chase
               | card has definitely had better service in the past few
               | years. Back in the day Discover had wonderful service,
               | but I stopped carrying one because too many merchants
               | wouldn't accept it.
        
               | starwind wrote:
               | I've had problems with AmEx for travel issues but never
               | problems for return protection or charge backs (except in
               | one weird case but they fixed it like a year later). I do
               | travel and dining on my Sapphire and everything else on
               | my AmEx
        
             | sgjohnson wrote:
             | Yes, but AmEx is vertically integrated, and they have 0
             | interest in shitting in their own backyard just to
             | marginally increase the profit margin.
             | 
             | Visa/MC can afford to just not care, because there's always
             | someone else who'll pick up the tab. Which simply is not an
             | option for AmEx.
        
             | selimthegrim wrote:
             | Does anyone know what AmEx is doing wrt Russia?
        
             | nxm wrote:
             | Unfortunately at a bigger cost to the merchant, which hurts
             | in case of small businesses
        
               | starwind wrote:
               | AmEx has special rates small businesses can apply for
               | that keep the credit card transaction fees pretty
               | competitive
        
             | xxpor wrote:
             | The card is still issued by a bank, the bank is called
             | American Express National Bank. Someone has to extend the
             | actual credit.
        
         | derefr wrote:
         | You say that as if it would be a CapEx-laden technological
         | hurdle for Visa, MasterCard, etc. to implement chip-and-pin.
         | 
         | But these same companies are already issuing 100% chip-and-pin
         | (plus tap) cards in every market other than the US.
         | 
         | If you want to blame anyone, blame the vendors of US ATMs and
         | POS systems. Without their support, and a willingness to push
         | through a deprecation/replacement of older hardware, chip-and-
         | pin cards are pointless, because nothing reads them. (I would
         | know, as a Canadian with a chip--and-pin card who frequently
         | visits the US.)
        
           | djrogers wrote:
           | > But these same companies are already issuing 100% chip-and-
           | pin (plus tap) cards in every market other than the US.
           | 
           | Citation please? I haven't seen a non-chip-and-pin card
           | issued here in the US for at least 5 years (probably even
           | longer), and that includes my tiny local bank..
        
             | briffle wrote:
             | Yep, the rules were, for chip and pin fraud, the liablility
             | was no longer on the retailer, but still was for swipe
             | fraud. So there was a HUGE push from retail customers to
             | get chip-and-pin in place to cut down on the amount of
             | chargebacks, etc.
             | 
             | https://pointofsale.com/chip-card-vs-magnetic-stripe-card/
        
             | anonymousiam wrote:
             | As recently as three years ago I still had two (ATM/Visa
             | Debit) cards with no chip. They were both issued by credit
             | unions. I know this was after the 10/1/2015 "deadline"
             | (https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/what-
             | october-1-chip-a...), but I think debit cards were given a
             | later deadline.
        
             | aidenn0 wrote:
             | None of my cards are chip-and-pin, they are chip-and-sign
             | (i.e. it's via a chip reader, but no PIN is required to
             | pay)
        
           | ksenzee wrote:
           | Er, how often do you visit? We've had widespread chip-reading
           | terminals in the US for almost a decade.
        
             | LeifCarrotson wrote:
             | The ones which are widespread are just "chip-and-choice",
             | where you can use the chip and sign a paper receipt. They
             | usually come with a magstripe backup...the chip is just
             | used to read the card number instead of the magstripe.
             | Pretty worthless.
             | 
             | True chip-and-pin cards and terminals will generate a
             | cryptogram that authenticates the individual transaction.
             | You type in the PIN code, and only then will the terminal
             | communicate with the EMV microchip in the card and allow
             | the transaction to complete.
        
               | colejohnson66 wrote:
               | Is there a difference in the user experience? Because
               | everywhere I use my debit card, I can't take it out
               | unless I enter my pin first. I'd assume that means it's
               | actually communicating with the chip. And even then it
               | takes a few seconds.
               | 
               | The magstripe is there for old POS systems and the off
               | chance the chip can't be used (dirty contacts), but the
               | reader has to allow you to use the strip. And that only
               | happens after multiple (about 3) failures.
        
               | sgjohnson wrote:
               | Doesn't matter. Chip-and-signature is an EMV compliant
               | way of authorizing a transaction.
        
           | pjerem wrote:
           | right. We have Visa / Mastercard cards with chip and pin in
           | France since the 90's
           | 
           | I always thought that its absence in the US (until pretty
           | recently) was a cultural thing, not a technical thing.
        
           | sbysb wrote:
           | This must be regional because I have been using a chip-and-
           | pin card for the last 5 years and I cannot for the life of me
           | remember the last time I had to physically swipe the card.
           | Tap support is definitely still spotty but that is something
           | that is more of a convenience than a security issue
        
             | dave5104 wrote:
             | I also can't remember the last time I had to swipe a card
             | where I am in the US. I also prefer using Apple Pay, and
             | tbh, can't remember the last time I had to use my physical
             | card.
        
               | twunde wrote:
               | It's still relatively common to have to swipe cards at
               | gas stations in the US when you're buying gas. And a fair
               | amount of the parking meters may still be on swipe (NYC
               | meters outside of Manhattan come to mind). The places
               | that haven't upgraded are ones with a lot of POS stations
               | to upgrade.
        
               | jacobmartin wrote:
               | Yep these two places are very common to be swipe only. I
               | have to go a human teller at <massive and famous
               | hospital> to pay for parking and the cc machine will
               | still only read swipes.
        
             | Shared404 wrote:
             | Also US based here, and can't remember the last time I had
             | to swipe.
             | 
             | There are even places with no swipe, where we can only use
             | chip.
        
       | docflabby wrote:
       | Nah cos big corps just do what they want with no penalties unless
       | they piss off enough people that the politicans feel like they
       | need to make a point.. ...we're well into gangster capitalism now
        
         | umeshunni wrote:
         | This isn't Reddit
        
           | micromacrofoot wrote:
           | This isn't Instagram either, can you clarify what this is
           | supposed to mean?
        
             | xeromal wrote:
             | Hackernews discourse is supposed to at least take some
             | thought when making a comment.
             | 
             | >ah cos big corps just do what they want with no penalties
             | unless they piss off enough people that the politicans feel
             | like they need to make a point.. ...we're well into
             | gangster capitalism now
             | 
             | This is just a lazy comment.
        
               | micromacrofoot wrote:
               | ah ok, so reddit is known for lazy comments?
        
           | deathanatos wrote:
           | This might not be Reddit, and the parent's point might be
           | crudely made, but watch the fines companies are awarded, and
           | put it in terms of revenue, and then scale it to /$60k USD,
           | to put it terms of how "big" of a fine it would be, from an
           | average person's pocket; you'll find that many of these fines
           | are in the sub-dollar range, which to me, makes it completely
           | fair to dismiss them as any sort of real penalty.
        
             | marcosdumay wrote:
             | That's a very interesting point, but make sure to do it
             | with profit, and not revenue. Revenue is meaningless on
             | this context.
             | 
             | (If it's a sub-dollar fine over revenue, it will probably
             | be around $20 on profits, what just moves the needle from
             | the cost of home-made coffee to an airport coffee.)
        
               | deathanatos wrote:
               | I disagree that profit is the right metric when scaling a
               | fine to a normal person; $60k is the average American's
               | revenue (not profit -- I'm not even sure how I'd
               | calculate profit for a human, in a year), so I use the
               | corresponding amount -- revenue -- when comparing.
               | 
               | For example, a $10 fine to a company w/ a net loss but
               | $1B in revenue is clearly not a large fine.
        
         | azinman2 wrote:
         | You say gangster capitalism. I also hear late stage capitalism
         | and other such modifiers being thrown around a lot.
         | 
         | When has power ever been limited? Certainly not in any
         | communist society that's existed so far, nor under feudalism,
         | or even earlier capitalist societies to my knowledge (did the
         | Roman's not have this problem?).
        
           | nimih wrote:
           | > When has power ever been limited?
           | 
           | The question isn't really whether power has been "limited"
           | (it's unclear to me what that would even mean, honestly), but
           | the form in which it is constituted and what institutions it
           | rests with. Like, it's pretty clear that the institutions
           | which control and manage daily life and politics in 21st
           | century America are of a much different character than the
           | ones of the mid-20th century USSR, which are again much
           | different than, say, 16th century Europe or what have you.
           | 
           | > did the Roman's not have this problem?
           | 
           | I'm relatively confident that Roman society did not have to
           | contend with the accumulation of power by multi-national
           | corporate bodies and the relative weakening of democratic
           | institutions that results, nor the degree to which such
           | corporations are able to leverage 21st century technology to
           | exert control over individuals' lives.
        
             | azinman2 wrote:
             | Of course the institutions are different. But is the
             | problem of power any different? If anything, it seems like
             | there are more ways that power is limited in current
             | America than 16th century Europe or the USSR.
             | 
             | Roman was absolutely multinational. I don't think it had
             | corporations, but rather the entire empire acting as a
             | single business... which is even worse.
        
               | aylons wrote:
               | You're not completely wrong, it is just a way too crude
               | of an assessment.
               | 
               | The way power evolves from ancient times, to middle ages,
               | to modern times and finally contemporary times, how the
               | institutions of capitalism are different in form, but not
               | in essence from the institutions of feudalism and other
               | themes are a central topic of Marxist theory.
               | 
               | You seen to agree with him about the root of the
               | exploitation problem, but GP is also right in that there
               | are differences on how the institutions operate and how
               | advanced they are in comparison to those of the past.
               | These new institutions and techniques and dynamics
               | require different tools for analysis.
        
               | nimih wrote:
               | > But is the problem of power any different? If anything,
               | it seems like there are more ways that power is limited
               | in current America than 16th century Europe or the USSR.
               | 
               | I certainly think so. I think many of the way in which
               | modern institutions exert power over individuals are of a
               | fundamentally different nature compared to, say, slave
               | economies, or the pre-reformation Catholic church, or the
               | Aztec empire, or whatever. In particular:
               | 
               | > If anything, it seems like there are more ways that
               | power is limited in current America than 16th century
               | Europe or the USSR.
               | 
               | I half-agree here. I don't really think "power" is a one-
               | dimensional scale where you can strictly order societies
               | in terms of the degree to which it exists. Take, for
               | instance, the way in which advertising companies are able
               | to leverage their understanding of psychology and their
               | fine-grained control over media content to directly shape
               | our desires and emotions; these are tools which flat out
               | didn't exist 100 years ago, and represent a mode of
               | control which seems orthogonal to, say, a monarch
               | ordering a summary execution of one of their subjects.
               | These aren't theoretical distinctions, either:
               | recognizing them can help point us in the right direction
               | when trying to imagine what a better world looks like,
               | and is useful for understanding what the available
               | avenues of resistance and change even are.
        
           | 1270018080 wrote:
           | Maybe it's usually not limited throughout history, but our
           | current particular flavor of collapse is late stage
           | capitalism.
        
             | azinman2 wrote:
             | What is the collapse? What is late stage about it? What is
             | the next stage? These words have always felt so meaningless
             | to me...
        
               | throwawaygh wrote:
               | The original answers to "late?", "collapse?, and "what's
               | next?" questions all require recalling that the term
               | originated in Marxist circles.
               | 
               | The "late" meant something like the type of capitalism
               | that emerged out of ww2, characterized primarily by post-
               | colonial global trade networks. That's quite a bit in the
               | past for us, but "late" by the standards of an
               | ideological tradition that started in the 1800s. Even
               | still, of all your questions, this is the one that has
               | changed meanings perhaps the least in the last 80 years
               | or so. That's because a lot of the things that
               | characterized "late stage capitalism" in the mid 20th
               | century are still with us, and perhaps intensified. If it
               | helps, think of "late stage" as "post-colonial +
               | globalization + financialization". In contrast to the
               | much more mixed political economies of Europe in the
               | 1800s. Or, for an even more modern usage, you might read
               | it as "jet-setting billionaires and the MBAs that manage
               | their factories and open offices". That's the vibe it's
               | supposed to give off, I think.
               | 
               | The "collapse?" and "what's next?" questions sort of have
               | standard Marxist answers (or, at least, standard
               | delineated lines of debate within mid-century Marxism,
               | from what I understand). Careful dispassionate reading
               | the Communist Manifesto... like, the way you would read
               | Plato or Hegel or whatever... can give you a general
               | sense for why "collapse" plays an important role in
               | Marxist theories and what Marxists generally suspect is
               | "next". (Namely, alienation of workers and a resulting
               | violent revolution of the working class against folks who
               | own/control capital.)
               | 
               | nb, I'm not really sure that most people using the term
               | now have much -- if any -- background in Marxist
               | economics/philosophy. I think for the average user, these
               | terms function roughly the same way as "critical race
               | theory" does on the social right. If that makes sense.
               | 
               | So, the "late" retains real descriptive meaning relative
               | to 1800s/early 1900s capitalism, but the "collapse" and
               | "what's next?" have sort of drifted from their original
               | answers and probably play a more rhetorical than literal
               | role these days. Like CRT. No one knows what they mean.
               | They are shibboleths for "change is needed and
               | inevitable", with no specifics for what or how.
               | 
               | Hope that helps.
        
               | pempem wrote:
               | ^ this is a great answer.
               | 
               | The vibe is one where you have :searching for something
               | accessible: a hunger games approach where society is
               | driven towards exploitation rather than the sustenance
               | and growth of the majority.
               | 
               | In general however, its dangerous to think "its always
               | been this way". I would argue societally we've been in a
               | continuous struggle between the two and there are many
               | moments in the recent past where the US was building a
               | more egalitarian society than found elsewhere, despite
               | the rampant incessant racism that existed.
               | 
               | Public schools and libraries, the rise of unions and
               | creation of the wknd, stopping child labor, centralized
               | mailing systems, well managed interstates, growth of home
               | ownership, social welfare, and for a moment really great
               | emergency care at hospitals, had moments of real
               | existence and came together in combinations rarely seen
               | outside of the USA.
               | 
               | Assuming things have always been kind of shit and are
               | likely to just get shittier takes us all off the hook far
               | too easily imo.
        
               | throw10920 wrote:
               | > Assuming things have always been kind of shit and are
               | likely to just get shittier takes us all off the hook far
               | too easily imo.
               | 
               | I've seen this same mindset that you're pointing out.
               | 
               | However, I don't think that it is usually used to "let
               | people off the hook" - most of the time that I've heard
               | it used (a bunch of times in real life, not just on the
               | internet), the subtext is "...and so we should replace
               | the current government with another [highly
               | authoritarian, non-constitutionally-limited] one that can
               | fix these issues, either through voting for an extreme
               | candidate/party, or straight-up violent revolution".
               | 
               | That might be just my experience, though - I went to a
               | university with a significant anarcho-communist group in
               | the student body.
        
               | rootusrootus wrote:
               | > "...and so we should replace the current government
               | with another [highly authoritarian, non-constitutionally-
               | limited] one that can fix these issues, either through
               | voting for an extreme candidate/party, or straight-up
               | violent revolution".
               | 
               | The interesting thing to me is that this kind of attitude
               | has become dominant across the spectrum of political
               | ideology, in just the space of a few years. A large
               | number of people, or at least the most vocal ones, now
               | seem to support an authoritarian extra-constitutional
               | goverment, they just differ on who they think should be
               | crushed first.
        
             | manigandham wrote:
             | What exactly are these stages?
        
               | throwawaygh wrote:
               | feudalism -> domestic industrialization and the formation
               | of capital markets (1700s) -> imperialist competition in
               | global markets and the height of colonial exploitation
               | (1800s) -> the fully privatized multinational firm,
               | global financialization, fully privatized competitors in
               | global markets (post-ww2 ie late).
        
           | claudiulodro wrote:
           | There is a lot of space to play around with outside of "pure"
           | communism, feudalism, or ancient capitalism. For example, the
           | EU seems to be making a strong attempt to balance consumer
           | protections with corporate-friendliness.
        
           | istjohn wrote:
           | There is a long-standing idea in American political thought
           | going back to James Madison that the centralization of
           | capital in too few hands poses a danger for democracy.
           | 
           | In the Gilded Age, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act
           | and later created the FTC.
           | 
           | In 1941, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote: "We can
           | have a democratic society or we can have the concentration of
           | great wealth in the hands of a few. We cannot have both."
           | 
           | Then in the 1970s the Supreme Court nerfed the Sherman Act,
           | and it's all been downhill from there.
        
           | wahnfrieden wrote:
           | Graeber goes into many examples in his new/last book, Dawn of
           | Everything, based off cutting edge anthro and archaeological
           | evidence
        
           | sillyquiet wrote:
           | Right? These are just re-treads of the 'rich, powerful, and
           | influential face fewer consequences for misdeeds' that has
           | been a factor of human life since probably forever. Other
           | economic systems have so far not proven themselves immune to
           | this.
           | 
           | I won't go so far as to say that capitalism has more controls
           | to mitigate this effect, since I think there is a fair point
           | to be made that we _do_ need to start checking the power of
           | corporations, and those controls have not so far presented
           | themselves without assuming government intervention.
        
             | azinman2 wrote:
             | I think the idea behind a robust capitalist society is that
             | there would be government intervention required, otherwise
             | you have trust issues.
             | 
             | In fact, I'd argue capitalism is generally better tuned for
             | this because it decentralizes power. It's much easier for
             | the government to regulate someone else than to regulate
             | itself.
             | 
             | Now if we could solve campaign finance issues, then
             | corruption would be dramatically lessened.
        
         | gordon_freeman wrote:
         | or enough people or someone "influential" start to complain on
         | social media and it gets enough traction.
        
           | encryptluks2 wrote:
        
             | revscat wrote:
             | I echo the sibling comment on asking for an explanation as
             | to why you feel that this is a bad thing. Are you American?
             | If so, would you rather the government not make their case
             | to influencers?
        
               | encryptluks2 wrote:
               | Yes I would rather the government not use social media
               | influencers to try to change public opinion on matters.
               | They shouldn't be performing PsyOps on their own
               | citizens.
        
               | revscat wrote:
               | Except that what they were doing is better described as
               | outreach, and was done openly and in apparent good faith.
               | Such outreach is especially important given the
               | prevalence of FSB psyops -- actual psyops -- throughout
               | the world.
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | Razengan wrote:
             | > _The White House is "briefing" TikTok stars about [what
             | to say about] the war in Ukraine_
             | 
             | If that's not propaganda, what is?
        
               | Zpalmtree wrote:
               | but this is good propaganda!!!
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | cryo78 wrote:
        
             | cryo78 wrote:
             | Why do you believe that everything the government does is
             | nefarious? If you really believe your government is after
             | you and everyone else you can try to change it or leave the
             | country. The one option that doesn't change anything is
             | posting unrelated comments on the web. How is the
             | government informing people bad? Are schools bad?
             | Universities?
        
               | encryptluks2 wrote:
        
               | cryo78 wrote:
        
               | nkozyra wrote:
               | > So you'd be okay if on Jan 6, Donald Trump used the
               | emergency broadcast system
               | 
               | The article you linked doesn't seem to say anything about
               | using EBS. Trump used every platform available to spread
               | the notion that the election was rigged, so I'm not
               | following the whatabout here.
        
               | ecf wrote:
        
               | boredumb wrote:
        
               | cryo78 wrote:
        
         | guntars wrote:
         | The fact that not being able to unsubscribe from marketing
         | emails counts as gangster capitalism for you.. well.. that must
         | mean things are pretty good.
        
           | hoppyhoppy2 wrote:
           | it's to opt out of having your purchase history sold, not to
           | opt out of receiving marketing emails.
           | 
           | >U.S. cardholders may opt out of Visa using their card
           | transaction data for VAS, a suite of aggregated data products
           | in the US.
        
       | azinman2 wrote:
       | I'm guessing you can still write or call them.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | robertwiblin wrote:
       | A description of what you are supposed to be able to opt-out from
       | on Visa cards is here:
       | 
       | "In some countries, Visa enhances card transaction data and uses
       | it to generate anonymised and aggregated consumer spending and
       | marketing reports and other data products that enable companies
       | to improve their marketing efforts. These solutions help
       | companies identify consumers that they can target."
       | 
       | https://www.visa.co.uk/legal/privacy-policy-opt-out.html
        
         | toomuchtodo wrote:
         | https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/assistant
         | 
         | https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/
         | 
         | California residents: https://oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-
         | complaint-against-busine...
         | 
         | EU Residents: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-
         | protection/refo...
         | 
         | (i cannot say for sure if/what regulatory impacts this might
         | have; let regulators know, let them figure it out, that's why
         | they exist)
        
       | boatsie wrote:
       | This is what is so frustrating about companies harming many
       | people by small amounts. There is no actual recourse for the
       | individuals. If an individual missed a credit card payment by
       | mistake, the bank would assuredly charge them a late fee, report
       | the payment to the credit agencies, etc. But when the company
       | makes a mistake like this, no penalty, no consequences. It really
       | should be the other way around--we should extend grace to the
       | person rather than the company, yet the company basically has
       | more "rights" in a way than the person.
        
         | WaxProlix wrote:
         | Gah, it's an asymmetric war. I feel like, as programmers, we
         | should be able to leverage automation for individuals to fight
         | back smarter where corpos fight harder.
         | 
         | Might be hard to do without incurring the ire of the state,
         | whose allegiances will probably not lie with the bearded fat
         | man spamming Visa's webforms with the contents of their own
         | emails or whatever.
        
       | paxys wrote:
       | Depends on local laws. And they'll likely say that they have a
       | phone number you could have called.
        
       | pilgrimfff wrote:
       | It is a violation with a theoretical hefty fine of around $40k
       | per infraction. But in practice, laws don't apply to companies
       | like Visa.
       | 
       | XFINITY's email marketing system has been ignoring opt-outs for
       | years and nothing has or will ever happen.
        
         | labster wrote:
         | Even the law was enforced, Visa would just get 3.5% of the fine
         | back immediately.
        
       | whathappenedto wrote:
       | When I tried to get my annual credit report, I find that the
       | credit agencies constantly have trouble validating my identify
       | online even though I have one of the simplest reports. A single
       | same address for decades, no loans, paid off every month.
       | 
       | They randomly will say that I can't be verified, and I need to
       | snail mail them copies of a bunch of identifying documents to get
       | my credit report. I imagine this is a common issue, and somehow
       | still satisfies their requirement to offer the annual credit
       | report online.
        
         | colejohnson66 wrote:
         | Why not just view them online? Sites like CreditKarma have
         | existed for years. And if you don't trust third parties,
         | Experian let's you view theirs on their own site. The benefit
         | is being able to see updates more than once a year. CreditKarma
         | updates every _week._
        
           | whathappenedto wrote:
           | Yeah that's what I'm trying to do, to view them online. I've
           | looked up what's going wrong, and quite a few people have
           | this issue that they can't be verified online.
        
             | colejohnson66 wrote:
             | That's bizarre. Apologies for not understanding.
        
         | couchand wrote:
         | I had a similar experience recently: one agency report came
         | through fine, one report came through with mysterious issues,
         | and one just would not ever let me verify without snail mail.
         | 
         | When it came time for my "real" credit report to be run,
         | however, there was no problem at all verifying my identity or
         | getting the accurate information. Weird, huh?
        
         | sidewndr46 wrote:
         | Same here, there is at least one credit union that essentially
         | treats me as persona non grata when I contact them.
         | 
         | Somehow each time that I go to do a hard credit check, they are
         | able to provide a credit score for the lender however.
        
       | bprasanna wrote:
       | Dark patterns all around! Same i experienced with Coinbase after
       | registering, when i searched for delete account, there is no such
       | thing!
        
         | ShakataGaNai wrote:
         | https://help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/managing-my-account/up...
        
       | markstos wrote:
       | IANAL, but if the page is used to opt-out of marketing emails,
       | then yes, Visa is in violation the US CAN-SPAM act, which
       | requires promptly processing opt-out requests.
       | 
       | https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act...
       | 
       | As long as the opt-out page is broken, they should not be sending
       | out marketing emails and could be open to a class-action lawsuit
       | from people they email with no ability to opt-out.
        
         | aidenn0 wrote:
         | IANAL as well; #6 says that no information other than an e-mail
         | address is required to opt-out, but when I was presented with a
         | login-page for an unsubscribe, my research indicated that it's
         | not cut-and-dry that requiring a login is banned by CAN-SPAM.
        
         | codingdave wrote:
         | > with no ability to opt-out.
         | 
         | That is the key. Does the web page being down mean that there
         | is no way to opt out? Or is it just more difficult? The page
         | you linked says: "Give a return email address or another easy
         | Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice
         | to you." Take note of the "or" in that statement.
         | 
         | So as long as they check replies within 10 days, they seem to
         | be OK. If they fail to do so, maybe there is a problem. FWIW,
         | I'm in agreement that this link being down is not good. But
         | there is not enough info to hazard even guessing whether this
         | is a violation of law.
        
         | hoppyhoppy2 wrote:
         | >if the page is used to opt-out of marketing emails
         | 
         | Though I can't access it, I don't think that's what it's for. I
         | believe it's for opting out of having your credit-card purchase
         | history used for marketing purposes (i.e. sold to other
         | companies, not for Visa itself to send you marketing emails).
         | 
         | >U.S. cardholders may opt out of Visa using their card
         | transaction data for VAS, a suite of aggregated data products
         | in the US.
         | 
         | (from the first result on
         | https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&q=visa+marketing+re...
         | , which points to the same subdomain on visa.com)
        
           | JacobThreeThree wrote:
           | Yeah, this opt-out is clearly not related to the sending of
           | marketing emails.
        
         | LukeShu wrote:
         | > could be open to a class-action lawsuit from people they
         | email with no ability to opt-out.
         | 
         | CAN-SPAM does not grant standing to individuals. The only
         | recourse individuals have under CAN-SPAM is to report the
         | violation to the FTC and hope the FTC does something about it.
        
           | manquer wrote:
           | Do individuals have standing against FTC if they don't action
           | ?
           | 
           | Lack of FTC action is causing you material harm , or is there
           | immunity against FTC as well?
        
             | charcircuit wrote:
             | How much harm does a marketing email even do. Waste 0.001
             | seconds of your time?
        
               | behringer wrote:
               | If you don't like it perhaps you can petition the
               | government to get rid of the can spam act?
        
               | paskozdilar wrote:
               | So just because the harm "feels small" to you personally,
               | that means it's _not really harm_?
        
               | charcircuit wrote:
               | When you go to sue Visa to get them to pay for the harm
               | they caused you I imagine a $0.01 of harm is not worth
               | the trouble.
               | 
               | Edit: I forgot the context. I should have said the FTC.
        
               | tobyjsullivan wrote:
               | From the URL in the root comment:
               | 
               | > Each separate email in violation of the law is subject
               | to penalties of up to $46,517
        
               | drdaeman wrote:
               | A single one - barely any. Although you have to be a
               | Superman to be able to entirely process it in 1ms.
               | 
               | At scale, it might take up to a few minutes off your day
               | and under certain circumstances (heavy spam) even start
               | contributing to a mental fatigue. It's a minor nuisance
               | but a nuisance nonetheless.
        
               | convolvatron wrote:
               | don't forget that that the presence of spam makes it
               | quite a bit more difficult to manage your own email
               | 
               | regardless, it introduces a non-zero chance that
               | legitimate email might be misclassified
               | 
               | it seems like everyone in the ad industry has this
               | opinion - if you don't like it, just delete it and move
               | on. but there are thousands of them, and somewhere in
               | there is that job offer I really need.
        
               | georgebarnett wrote:
               | A single email will waste anywhere between 3-30 seconds
               | of my life.
               | 
               | On aggregate, junk email, enabled by disrespecting
               | marketers and ongoing minimisation such as your comment,
               | will waste months.
        
             | rootusrootus wrote:
             | > Do individuals have standing against FTC if they don't
             | action ?
             | 
             | You can petition them, certainly. Individuals and business
             | are not able to sue the FTC.
        
               | iudqnolq wrote:
               | It's complicated, but under certain circumstances you can
               | sue agencies for not doing something. It depends on the
               | specific laws governing the specific agency and how
               | you've been harmed by the inaction. Broadly speaking, the
               | Administrative Procedures Act required agencies to have
               | procedurally fair processes. If you're concretely harmed
               | by an agency's inaction and you can show they didn't
               | follow the correct processes, you can sometimes win.
        
       | silicon2401 wrote:
       | Does anybody have a phone number or other resource that can be
       | used for opting out of marketing?
        
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