The Australian Federal Government instituted a Do Not Call Register earlier this year.  This is a system where you register your personal details and telemarketers are forbidden to call (except for charities and political parties).  This is something that I have felt that was needed for some time and it was about time it was implemented, even if it cost a fortune for something that could have been done by professionals at a fraction of the price.  Although I never give out my phone number and have a silent number so I don’t have this problem. It is nice to know that the only people you will be talking to on the phone you pay for are those that you may actually be interested in speaking to.

Today I read about an interesting start-up in America where ProQuo will stop you getting junk mail sent to you - please read more At TechCrunch. 

This raises an interesting point about how could a private company make money from this program? Even more interesting is why can’t the government legislate against unwanted marketing promotions being sent to indivuals?  It should not be left up to individuals to regulate this, when it would be more effective for the government to prescribe what should be done.

The Spam Act prevents people from sending electronic messages to people that are unsolicited, and requires messages to have unsubscribe options easily and freely available.  This does not work with the Nigerian scams, but at least you are shielded from legitimate companies hassling you when you don’t want them to.  The Do Not Call Register serves the same purposes with phones so I think that you should have the same option with mail.  Considering that the government already has my name and address details for the electoral roll, which you can verify online - then why can’t I include an option saying that unless I have requested mail in writing then don’t send it to me?

One of the reasons that I think that this should be legislated is that for many services you have to give your actual address.  With emails you can spoof the real address and you can avoid giving your phone number, but if you want things sent to you then people may be able to trace you.  Giving me a way to stop people using my address for nefarious means is something that should be federally sponsored.  This also would be an environmentally friendly means of controlling paper waste.

This may sound like an unqualified rant, however I think that the control over mail is more important than phone calls and emails because of the potential for identity theft.  Phone calls and Emails may be annoying but will not end up in your car being repossessed.  Mail is being intercepted to either use the applications to get credit, or for people to assume your identity.  This mail is often just stolen from people’s mail boxes. Even mail that you want to receive can be used against you - earlier this year I closed a bank account, all I needed to do was provide them with a statement and they handed me over the contents of the account in cash and closed the account - no pin number - no id - nothing.  After that moment I purchased a PO box so no one would steal my mail.  My home address however is still getting credit card applications in the mail, that I will not sign up for - but a fraudster might.

The cost of such an operation should be small and the benefits enormous - Although this is never going to be an election issue, it would be a nice touch.