The internet is usually abuzz about spam, also known as UCE: unsolicited commercial email. It clogs mailboxes and contains fraudulent content, viruses and phish attacks. The old style of spam, junk mail sent through the post office, is less commented upon because, while irritating, it is seemingly easier to toss.
However, when the email is legitimate, such as a message from a business from which Babbage has made purchases, a single click is often enough to halt the flow. Not so with the paper kind, which often hides instructions to be removed from a list in illegibly small type sizes, and may require sending a letter through the post to consummate the request. Or it omits them altogether. True, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) maintains a site for its member companies through which a consumer may register and block (by category) catalogues, magazine offers and other solicitations. But that is a subset of all direct-mail advertisements.
Your correspondent, who nearly four years ago wrote about the precipitous drop in routine mail, such as invoices, bills and the like, fills the Babbage family's recycling bin with missives imploring the household to sign up for cable-modem service (already installed), revise one's mortgage or apply for a credit card. Thus has he given PaperKarma a spin, a free iOS app that automates the removal process.
Acquired by ReputationDefender, the app is a model of simplicity. Snap a picture on a smartphone of unwanted mass snail mail and it will be removed. A user at first needs to enter one or more addresses at which mail is received, or different names associated with the same address. Then, tap a button and follow a couple of steps to view the image, confirm the address to which it was sent and submit it for processing. Often within seconds, the app notes the submission to be removed has been received.
Michael Fertik, the boss of ReputationDefender, says PaperKarma is intentionally single purpose and remains free as an advertisement for the firm's other services, even though none are required to use the app. Its paid service uses one click to automate removal from DMA lists, along with other options to shape how search engines and other websites represent a person online.
Mr Fertik says PaperKarma uses optical character recognition (OCR) as a first pass of identifying information. If that fails, the image is sent to humans. If the return address or sender can be properly identified, "We've built up quite a robust database now of removal processes." He says the hoops for each company may be different, but they've sorted it out.
Mr Fertik is too discreet to tell Babbage on the record which companies are naughty and which nice about complying with its proxy removal requests. However, he says the app will be updated soon to allow users to mark "good karma" (compliant companies) and "bad karma," and it may publish its statistics.
The app has removed roughly 10m unwanted mailings per year by the firm's reckoning. Future versions will offer new features, which could include a request to switch from a printed catalogue to be placed on an email list. Such features would reduce the flow of paper, and also provide a revenue stream for the app.
PaperKarma is the leading edge of a wedge Mr Fertik wants to advance on behalf of his company's subscribers, though. He envisions warehousing information for customers and guarding it carefully, while allowing users to request the sorts of information they receive, often with an incentive, such as a coupon or discount. "Do you want to receive certain kinds of information in exchange for certain benefits?" If so, and only if so, he would connect the user and the company.
One could be forgiven for thinking that firms should run their own cost-benefit analyses and make the task PaperKarma automates easier, or reach out to Mr Fertik and others to reduce the flow of material. Babbage today received a 1 kg catalogue full of listings, shipping envelopes and containers from an outfit he has ordered from twice in the last five years. Comcast, his cable-data provider, sends a minimum of three envelopes a week.
The ugly truth is that the cost of mailing and the measurably slight return from offers keeps the flow of junk coming without bad karma—until it is quantified and revealed, potentially by an app like this one.
Original article: http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2014/04/junked-mail