Charter had planned to begin the program as early as this month in the test markets: Fort Worth; San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Oxford, Mass.; and Newtown, Conn.

Earlier Tuesday, Connecticut’s attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, released a letter calling on Charter to drop the plan. A Charter spokeswoman, Anita Lamont, said the decision to do so was unrelated to Mr. Blumenthal’s letter.

Update:On the New York Times' "Bits" blog, Charter admits they're not ending the program—just postponing it until the heat's off:

Anita Lamont, a spokeswoman for Charter, said the company wanted to take stock of “customer concerns about privacy.” Its executives, she said, were “just wanting to make sure everybody was comfortable.” Ms. Lamont said that Charter hopes to proceed with the system at some point in the future, but she wouldn’t say when.

“This is something we would move forward with when we think it’s time,” she said.

"Charter Won’t Track Customers’ Web Use" [New York Times]
"Charter Suspends Plan To Sell Customer Data to Advertisers" [Bits - New York Times]
(Photo: Getty)

Two years ago I purchased items for my grandchildren at KidsStuff.com. This month (March 2008) I found an $18.00 charge from them on my American Express card. I phoned the accounting department and asked what the charge was for. I was told that it was an "automatic" charge for "joining" the KidsStuff "club." Of course, I never placed an order to join any such club. The accounting department offered to reverse the charge to be effective in five days. I demanded a reversal show up by tomorrow and promised to advertise their automatic charges everywhere I could. Believe me, I am a big internet purchaser and this sort of rip-off shouldn't happen, especially after not having been on the site for over two years. The obvious lesson is to be sure you always go over every single charge on those credit cards. Those small $18 charges can add up to big money for unscrupulous companies.

C, we suggest you take a look at your AmEx statement from a year ago and see whether or not there's an $18 charge then, too. According to the KidsStuff.com website, you'll get a "free" three month trial with your first order, and then get charged $18 a year—so you may have been unwittingly paying for this "membership" for a while now.

Q: How Can I join?
A: When you place your first order, sign up for your FREE Three Month trial. You'll get the reduced club prices for every item on your first order and for every order you place for the next three months.

Q: What does it cost me to join?
A: As a first time Customer, you receive a FREE three month trial. After that, it is only $18.00 per year for these great savings. At the end of the three month free trial, we'll automatically charge the membership fee unless you tell us otherwise. If you forget to tell us and notice the charge on your credit card bill, just give us a call and we will cancel your membership immediately. We will also issue you a full refund as long as it is within 90 days of being charged.

1. Use their form to generate 17 ready-to-mail requests to different direct mail companies. DoNotMail will take the data you enter and create a PDF document with all 17 letters ready to print and send. If you don't want to enter your personal info into a random site, you can use fake data and then download the PDF document for a reference to create your own letters.

2. Contact Opt-Out Prescreen online or at 1-888-567-8688 (888-5-OPT-OUT) from your home telephone .

3. Email your removal request to Abacus Direct at optout@abacus-us.com

3. Remove your name from ADVO Inc. by calling 1-888-241-6760 or completing the form at www.advo.com/consumersupport.html

4. Fill out the form on the Direct Marketing Association's website at www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailing

5. Email your removal request to Publishers Clearinghouse at privacychoices@pchmail.com

6. Get off Val-Pak's list by filing out the form at http://www.coxtarget.com/mailsuppression/s/DisplayMailSuppressionForm

7. To remove yourself from Acxiom's list, you must request a mail-in opt-out form by calling 1-877-774-2094.

8. DoNotMail.com notes, "Catalogs may stop coming when your other removal requests are processed, but you can always call the catalog company."

"Stop getting junk mail" [DoNotMail.org]
"Phone numbers and websites to opt out of junk mail" [DoNotMail.org]
(Photo: Joe Shlabotnik)

The insurance tacks on $12 per person. The club may be worse: It charges $9 up front for a three-month trial offer, then it automatically renews for $29.95 a year. If you're hastily clicking through, you might not notice the extra charges until you get the credit card statement.

"Opt-out" features stink for buyers, but are great for companies that like to prey on the careless or distracted. "Opt-in" is obviously far more consumer-friendly.

So remember to opt out of these features before you click purchase (unless of course you actually want them, in which case, enjoy!).

This is not the Spirit Airlines website and I can't cancel your club membership... [Upgrade: Travel Better]

• Phone solicitations: donotcall.gov
• Junk snail mail: Direct Marketing Association
• Email: Just mark it as spam. Don't try to unsubscribe, spammers use that to confirm a live hit and sell the results to their friends.
• Credit card offers: OptOutPrescreen.com
• Doubleclick ad cookies: Ad Cookie Opt-out
• Lexis Nexis public database: Opt Out of Lexis Nexis
• Companies without online optouts: printable forms here.

— BEN POPKEN

Don't Call. Don't Write. Let Me Be. [NYT via Lifehacker]