[thelist] RE: checked vs. unchecked boxes

Greg Holmes greg.holmes at gmail.com
Tue Oct 26 07:11:27 CDT 2004


Eike Pierstorff wrote:

>Here in Germany preselecting checkboxes is, in most
>cases, illegal. The theorie behind this is the law
>of cause and effect; if I fail to provide a cause
>(like selecting a checkbox) I do not expect any effect
>to take place. If a Website tries to have any effect
>on my mail account or bank account without me providing
>a cause this is considered spam or fraud respectively.

What a charming, utopian idea (and I mean that
sincerely).  Does it also specify in minute detail
what the text accompanying check boxes must be?

[ ] Make my email address public in the paper
    membership roster which is only distributed
    to members

-or-

[ ] Make my email address private; do not
    include in the printed membership roster

German law would require either version to be
unchecked by default?

>German legislation is, in this case, user-centric.
>It does not care about the default state of your
>checkboxes, it is supposed to protect the default
>state of your users

Cute, but you said that the law is precisely
specifying the default state of your check boxes,
in the service of this noble cause :)

Do I actually need to restate that nobody (nobody
here, anyway) is defending deceptive practices?

Greg Holmes


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