What It Means for You:

MailStop Envelope – If you have purchased one or more envelopes that you have not yet used, please return the envelope to us before February 1, 2013. After this date, we will no longer process envelope opt-outs.

Mailstop Mobile App – If you currently use our mobile app, you can continue to use it. However, we will not be launching new features or updates.

MailStop Browser Extension – If you currently use our browser extension, you can continue to use it. However, we will not be launching new features or updates.

We appreciate your understanding and encourage you to continue opting out of unwanted mail at www.catalogchoice.org. If you have question, please email us at team@catalogchoice.org.

Many communities all over the US post lists of holiday waste reduction tips online, so we decided to highlight the best of what we've seen:

Catalog Choice Top 10 Tips for Holiday Waste Reduction

1. Reuse foam peanuts. Most packaging materials for shipping can be used more than once.
2. Compost your leftover food. It's easy and makes for a great fertilizer.
3. Wrap creatively. Use comics, old maps, sheet music, fabric/wallpaper scraps. And use fun tins and food boxes you crush and recycle for gift containers.
4. Make festive recycling bins. They're a great addition for your holiday party and a great activity for kids.
5. Give the gift of time or talent. Take someone to a play, concert or movie. Make your own gift certificates. Offer your talents like photography or financial planning.
6. Help your friends go green. Give planet-conscious gifts like compost bins, can crushers, water timers, programmable thermostats, rain barrels, bird feeders, light timers or bat house.
7. Buy outdoor light strands that are wired in parallel. If one bulb goes bad, the others still work, so you won't be throwing away entire “bad” strands.
8. Keep it simple. One thoughtful gift is better than six wrapped packages of unwanted gifts.
9. Don't wrap oversized gifts. Hide them and give clues. Make gift-giving into a treasure hunt.
10. Plan previously-loved or homemade gift exchanges. Books, a restored piece of furniture or a rebuilt bike can be cherished for many years and by many people.

'Tis the season to opt out of even more unwanted paper mail! We encourage you to try at least one of these fun tips as you celebrate the spirit of the season—and don't forget to keep opting out of paper mail all year long at www.catalogchoice.org.

Held annually on November 15^th, America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to the promotion of recycling programs in the United States.  Recycling is one of the easiest things we can do every day to save energy and conserve natural resources.

As part of ARD’s efforts to encourage us to reduce, reuse and recycle throughout the year, we are offering free opt-outs for unwanted junk mail at a special website, americarecyclesday.catalogchoice.org. We will track participation and the resulting environmental benefits including trees, greenhouse gases, water and solid waste saved.

Every year, U.S. households receive over 83 billion pieces of advertising mail. Sadly, 46% is never read, and 38% is not recycled. With Catalog Choice, consumers can opt-out of the direct mail they no longer wish to receive. To date, we have connected over 1.6 million consumers nationwide who want to manage their privacy with more than 8,000 direct-mail companies to reduce the amount of unwanted mail and minimize its environmental impact. Consumer opt-outs, to date, have resulted in saving approximately 798,000 trees, 332,430,000 pounds of greenhouse gas, 117,842,000 pounds of solid waste, and 800,607,000 gallons of water.

We encourage all catalog choice customers to get involved and show your support for recycling in your community.  Take the America Recycles Day pledge, and join a recycling event in your community!

Together, we can make waste prevention and recycling bigger and better 365 days a year. 

We wanted to find out what average American citizens knew about Data Brokers and how much control they wanted over their personal information held by Data Brokers. We conducted a survey among 2,900 randomly selected Catalog Choice members.

Today, we announced the results of the survey. Here are some of our key findings:

Less than 20% of consumers have a good understanding of data brokers:

• Only 18% of consumers have significant or complete understanding of how to define a data broker company.
• Only 16% of consumers have significant or complete understanding of what information data brokers collect.
• Only 20% of consumers have significant or complete understanding of what data brokers do with that information.

Consumers want access to and control over the information data brokers collect:

• 76% of consumers feel that it is important to be notified about information data brokers collect.
• 71% of consumers feel that it is important to be able to access and see information data brokers collect (77% feel that it is important to be able to modify that information).
• 80% of consumers feel that it is important to be able to opt out of the distribution and sale of information or delete the information that data brokers collect.

Not surprisingly, most people are confused about how data brokers operate and want to better control how data brokers handle their personal information. At Catalog Choice, we’re helping consumers gain greater control over their mailboxes. We believe you should be in control of your personal information.

Our MailStop Shield service can help you stop data brokers from freely trading your identity. The service removes your information from data brokers lists, allows you to track the progress of your opt-outs and helps keep unwanted mail out of your mailbox.

To start removing your name and address from data broker lists, sign up for MailStop Shield.

Catalog Choice is hosting a new version of our free mail preference service at NYC.gov/greeNYC. Now you can access the nation's largest opt-out service from within our partner's website.

Want the latest on living sustainably in New York? On the GreeNYC site you'll find a custom version of the Catalog Choice opt-out service. Stop your junk mail and learn about other ways to live greener in NYC.

Want a custom widget for your communities website?  Learn more here and contact April Smith for details.

Below are a few screen shots from the GreeNYC site.

Click the Sign Up! link and the new widget version of our service appears.

Login to your existing account or sign up for a free account.  You'll stay right on the NYC.gov page and you can search for unwanted mail and phonebooks as shown below.

Last week, the New York Times published an article titled You for Sale. It chronicled how Acxiom, one of the largest Data Brokers, has amassed the world's largest consumer database and all of your information is for sale. We believe that you should be in control of your personal information, not Data Brokers.

We built MailStop Shield to make it easy for you to stop Data Brokers from freely selling your identity. With MailStop Shield, we get Data Brokers to remove your name and address from the marketing lists that they sell. This reduces unwanted mail and protects your privacy.

Today, we are pleased to introduce you to the improved MailStop Shield.
The service removes your information from the top Data Brokers and now provides clear, easy-to-follow information so you can track the progress of your opt-outs. There are several additional Data Brokers that we are working to add to the service, including Acxiom. If you subscribe to the service, we will automatically submit your opt-out requests throughout the year as we add them.

With MailStop Shield you can take another big step toward protecting your personal information and stopping unwanted mail.

 The survey’s overwhelming response sparked a range of ideas about postal reform including:

 Consumers prefer to receive personal correspondence and packages in the mail:

• About 90 percent of consumers prefer to receive personal correspondence and packages
• Only 20 percent of consumers prefer to receive local company advertising and less than 2 percent prefer to receive non-local advertising
• Only 7 percent of consumers prefer to receive non-profit and political solicitations in the mail

 Consumers have indicated they are comfortable with mail delivery five days per week:

• Over 80 percent of consumers are “definitely or probably ok” with mail delivery five days per week, with the number dropping significantly to just over 50 percent for mail delivery four days per week
• Over 90 percent of consumers would be inconvenienced if mail delivery was reduced to two days per week

Key feedback on services the Postal service could deliver:

• Over 65 percent of consumers think that the USPS should create a website to access all government forms like DMV, passport, taxes, etc.
• Over 30 percent are willing to pay a monthly fee to not receive advertising in the mail
• Over 50 percent of consumers think that the USPS should leverage the fact that postal workers are at their homes on a daily basis and set up a recycling pick-up service to take away old cell phones, batteries, light bulbs, etc.

“In order for the United States Postal Service to remain viable, it must listen to the needs of postal consumers across the country and adapt,” said Teller. “Citizens care about the long term viability of the USPS and they are actively engaging in sharing their vision for the USPS. Our survey results clearly indicate that people don’t want mail that isn’t intended for them and they don’t mind reduced mail delivery to make that possible.”

Catalog Choice works with consumers, companies and communities around the country to eliminate unwanted mail. During PostalVision 2020/2.0, consumers can continue the conversation about the role and future of the USPS by responding to live questions from the Conference through either Catalog Choice’s Twitter account or Facebook page.

Methodology

Conducted online, the survey questioned a national sample of over 18,000 Americans. Polling took place between June 6 and June 11, 2012. 

You can tell the USPS that you want the ability to opt-out of mail sent to "Current Resident".  Sign our letter at Citizens for Mail Choice.

Check out this video we made with a summary of EDDM: Every Door Direct Mail.


If you haven't yet seen or heard ads for "Every Door Direct Mail," you probably soon will. It's the "new" program from the postal service that allows businesses to mail every address in specified zip codes. No need to have names and addresses. Just select the zip codes you want to mail to, and the mail carrier will drop your ad in every mailbox in those zip codes for under $0.15 per piece.

Is this what USPS customers want? Well, yes. Businesses are the primary customers of the USPS. Mail recipients aren't the customer, we are the product. The postal service sells access to us, and therein lies the rub. Many people don't like being a product without consent, which raises questions like, "what if I don't want more advertising mail"?

So what can you do about it?  According to the Every Door Direct User Guide (link), the Customer delivers the Do Not Deliver addresses to the Post Office with the Facing slip for each zip code. We know there's a process to opt-out and we need to work together to make sure it works.  When companies select the zip codes they want to send EDDM mail to, there is a section on the Facing Slip for "Do Not Mail Addresses." If your address makes it on that form, the mail carrier should skip your address.

Sounds straight forward.  Since we oversee this process for millions of Americans, we've been digging into the details to make sure it really works.

We started with confirming that the Post Office is getting the Do Not Deliver lists from the Customer since the user guide (shown below) says that it is the Customer's responsibility to complete this section. We called the USPS Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) Customer Service Center to confirm and herein lies the problem. On our first call we were told it's the Post Office's responsibility to fill that section out. So, then we called the USPS general customer service center and asked how to get on that list at the local post office. We were told to go to DMAchoice, which we know does not stop unaddressed mail. So we called EDDM Customer Service  back.  This time we spoke with someone else and she indicated that either the post office or the customer could complete it. Given the confusion, we're assuming the user guide is correct.

It's unclear the extent to which requests will be honored. You get the feeling not many companies use this section. Honoring an opt-out for unaddressed mail follows a completely different process than honoring an opt-out for addressed mail. That said, companies receiving opt-outs through Catalog Choice should be honoring them for all mailing, addressed or unaddressed.

If you get unaddressed mail from a company you've submitted an opt-out to, let us know!

 

Happy New Year!

This email is to thank you for your great service and share a little bit of the difference you have made for my family.

As part of an education program I was running, I registered my first choice for stopping catalogs on 10/26/2007. I kept track of all the catalogs our house received in November and December. I've since transitioned to a different job, but I've continued to use your service to help stop the catalog clutter. (I've also continued to keep track because I was curious about our progress.)

When going through the catalogs in our mail we separate out the catalogs that need to be entered into Catalog Choice, tear off the necessary information and recycle the catalog. Every few weeks, sometimes once I month, I then login to our account and update our choices.

Each year we've been pleasantly surprised to see the number decrease and this year the 'wow-factor' was so fantastic, we needed to tell you about it.

Catalogs received during peak holiday mailing season:

          
           '07   '08  '09  '10  '11
 Nov    97    83   66   55   29
 Dec    42    42   32    26  16

We would have never accomplished this on our own. It takes a little effort and persistence, but it is most definitely paying off. Thank you so much!

Have you been tracking the progress you've made with Catalog Choice? We'd love to hear your story as well.