120 Meter Hurdles

Businesses are putting up more and more obstacles to opt-out of marketing material and selling your information to 3rd parties.  When it comes to filing taxes and entering in your most guarded financial information, I always opt out.  Here is my latest experience with H&R Block:



  1. When you register the program, they give you a dialog box about their privacy policy is available at www.hrblock.com/software/2011/privacy.  They did not make the text selectable so you can't copy it.  So you have to write it down or type it in notepad.  Wouldn't it be so much easier for consumers if they just had an opt-in/out checkbox as part of the registration process itself.
  2. Link is by tax year, so have to opt-out every single year.  http://www.hrblock.com/software/2011/privacy
  3. The link redirects to general privacy policy.
    http://www.hrblock.com/universal/privacy_policy.html
  4. The actual link from the privacy policy is located toward the bottom of long text.  I bet next year it will be embedded within a EULA.  
  5. The hyplink itself is styled so as not to show up as a hyperlink unless you hove over "click here", so it is not easy to find.
  6. Check out this form, they are asking for the same personal information you just filled out.  http://www.hrblock.com/privacy/optout.html?disp=1
  7. I made the mistake of selecting all check boxes to opt out.  If you marked opt out of phone, you have to give them a phone number.  Thank God those incessant local pizza commercials have led to long term potentiation, and I thought it was wasting a neuron or two.
  8. Drum roll please....



    Their form is not secure,     so they are trying to get you to submit your personal contact information in the clear.  Easy fix here is the secure link
  9. Adding insult to injury, once you submit your information you get a message that your request will be processed within 5-7 business days.  Does that mean your information will be used for a week without your permission?  

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