Gidday,

I was wondering after I wrote the last blog about LL Bean refusing 3rd party requests from stopthejunkmail.com how clean the data is from catalog choice going to LL Bean, especially after I read this interview with Chuck teller the Executive director of Catalogchoice.org by Alan Rimm-Kaufman.

There is a question for Chuck as follows from Alan:
“Alan: So you are running list hygiene against your list? By opting out at my old address, I might have opted out at my new address?”

Chcuck’s response:
“Chuck: Let me be clear. We don’t have access to the NCOA list. We provide the name and address as you enter it in to the merchants and the merchant. To the degree that the merchant takes your name and address and run it through NCOA and find that you’ve moved, then they can make that request.”

All be it that this response is based around the change of address, if I read this correctly, it seems that catalogchoice.org is sending data to the cataloger and relying on the cataloger to clean their data and validate it.

I wonder how many opt outs sent from catalogchoice.org actually end up getting processed? Does catalogchoice.org then receive a file back from the cataloger telling them which opt outs were honored? How do they know?

Furthermore, catalogchoice.org does not require a credit card to validate the member signing up so someone could sign up with a name of Mr. a b c at some bogus address.

I fail to see why LL Bean (and other merchants) is using catalogchoice.org as a preferred 3rd party for opt outs when there is no validation of data. What process is catalogchoice.org using to validate their members authenticity?

Cheerio,
Margot