Category Archives: Consumer activism

Boycott Amazon until they come clean about recent data breach

Early on November 21, 2018, I along with an undetermined number of other Amazon customers received the following email from Amazon: This breach notification lacked most of the information expected to be included in a breach notification from any reputable company, including: How was the information disclosed? For how long was the information accessible? How… Read More »

Brookline parking meter credit card fee is obnoxious, yes, but also illegal

Dear Mr. Kleckner [Melvin Kleckner, Brookline MA Town Administrator], I was so happy to see that the Town of Brookline is continuing its ongoing efforts to make parking in Brookline as unpleasant as possible by recently adding a 30-cent fee for all credit-card transactions in parking meters. I’m sure the owners of small businesses in… Read More »

This is what happens when you let monkeys with keyboards design your email templates

You know how sometimes you encounter something that is so terrible and appalling that you feel you just have to tell other people about it? Well, for me, today is one of those days. But look, I’m a nerd who writes email software and likes to write raw HTML. If the terms “SMTP” and “MIME”… Read More »

“CQ Engage” bulk mail service provider enters my global kill file

Recently, I wrote about what prompted me to add Blue State Digital to my global kill file. Today, CQ Engage, a service offered by CQ Roll Call, joins in that dubious honor. The things you need to do to be a reputable bulk mail service provider are actually very simple and straightforward: Publish an anti-spam… Read More »