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Comment by forgotmypw17 | Hacker News Reader

Like the fox offering an opt-out list to the chickens...

It's probably a service mandated by regulation, not out of the goodness of VISA.

And it's probably running on the slowest and cheapest hardware they can buy, without any monitoring.

I doubt it. They state "Because your issuing bank may change your card number, your opt out will be honored for five years. After five years, you will need to resubmit your card number." This strikes me as the kind of bullshit that would not be permitted if the opt-out was legally mandated. I suspect this opt-out may instead be an attempt to avoid regulation, by trying to appear to be doing the right thing even without regulation.

All legally mandated electronic opt-out requirements have time limits AFAIK.

Credit score companies (5 years): https://www.optoutprescreen.com/

Spam mail (10 years): https://www.dmachoice.org/

The government's page about this tells a different story: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0262-stopping-unsolici...

> To opt out permanently: You may begin the permanent Opt-Out process online at www.optoutprescreen.com. To complete your request, you must return the signed Permanent Opt-Out Election form, which will be provided after you initiate your online request.

> Telemarketing [...] Telephone numbers on the registry will only be removed when they are disconnected and reassigned, or when you choose to remove a number from the registry.

Meanwhile, the DMAchoice site says:

> It is not a tool to effectuate rights under any specific law including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

So I'm not buying that legally mandated opt-outs come with the annoying expiration dates.

If you also read optoutprescreen.com, permanent opt-out is only possible through using physical forms, not electronically.

Seriously, people don't understand how opt-outs are nonsense. Say I am facebook. In 2020 I make an opt-out data grab. I turn it on and grab all the data, and then put up a site to opt-out. Then in 2021 I make another grab with a new opt-out. They literally don't care who opts out, they never need to even look at that list because they already grabbed it all.

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