Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2011; the 625,000 registered users, the expected doubling by year-end, the company fee and the fines under the data protection law of the time are 2011 data. Spanish data protection rules, penalties and the list itself have since changed.
Phone calls at all hours telling us about services we never asked for, offering products that have nothing to do with our interests, and, after we say no, refusing to give up and trying again the next day. Sometimes our important emails get buried under junk mail, and our traditional mailbox fills up with letters and advertising leaflets addressed to us by name, with no idea where they got our details.
Well, today you can put a stop to all of this. Every country has a body that collects the details of people who don’t want to receive unsolicited advertising, whether by mail, phone, email or other channels. In Spain we have the Robinson List (Lista Robinson): you just go to its website and enter your details to register your objection to receiving any kind of unwanted advertising. Companies are required to check the list before calling us, and a company that ignores this “express objection” faces penalties ranging from 15,000 to 600,000 euros.
The list is completely free for users, but not for companies, which have to pay around 150 euros if they want to consult who is registered.
On the Robinson List you can select the companies you wouldn’t mind receiving advertising from, and you can also block advertising by phone while allowing it by email, and vice versa.
There are currently 625,000 people registered, and the companies whose advertising has been rejected the most are the phone companies. Sooner or later they’ll have to change the way they handle sales, especially that endlessly tiresome 1444 number.
Still, in my opinion the list has some gaps. In principle, you can refuse advertising from companies you’ve never had a business relationship with, or whose relationship has ended. But as I understand it, companies you’re currently a customer of can keep sending you advertising. (I’m not sure about this part; it’s worth checking.)
Even so, the number of people registered is expected to double before the end of the year.
Featured image: Michael Coghlan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
