Opt-in vs. opt-out

The Denver Rocky Mountain News published a Q&A last week with Scott Richter, the Colorado man whose company, OptInRealBig.com, was recently sued by Microsoft and the New York Attorney General for allegedly sending deceptive spam e-mail. Among other things, Richter provides a glimpse into his mindset by offering a definition of "opt-in" that, shall we say, differs from the way other people define that term.

News: How do you differ from a spammer?

Richter: Our customers have signed up at Web sites. We believe we have a relationship with the user. A spammer usually harvests their names off of news boards and Web sites or chat rooms. All of our users have opted in at one of our Web sites or one of our partners' Web sites.

News: What's an example of what a customer who signs up would do?

Richter: Usually you see something like, "Enter a contest." And then you see 50 checkboxes underneath that are all pre-checked. If you don't uncheck those boxes, then you're more likely signing up for one of our lists or somebody else's lists.

Under a more traditional definition, opt-in means that the check-boxes are unchecked to begin with, allowing you to "opt-in" by checking them, and avoiding the chance that you'll unknowingly sign up by overlooking them. Read the full interview here.