Frequently Asked Questions

I just want to clear one thing up. It seems that more than a few people think that www.PrivacyDigest.com is actually part of OptOut.com While they do link to us, that is as far as it goes. Sorry but we are a totally different website run by totally different people.

Some organizations that might be able to help you opt-out from some marketing lists are:

  • The FCC help stops some telemarketers from calling your phone. This opt-out lasts for approximately 5 years.

    www.DoNotCall.gov or call 888-382-1222

  • There is a number that will help restrict the credit bureau's from distributing your credit info.

    This info is unverified so please check further your-self before using them. The automated service will ask for your social security number and date of birth. It will try and process your request even if you do not provide that info. www.optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-5OptOut (1-888-567-8688)

  • The DMA (Direct Mail Marketing Assoc. ?) can help slow down the junk mail. Although I think that they want to charge you for this service

    https://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailing

When I get the chance I will try and get some contact info for each of these. If anyone already has this info please include it in the comments and I'll up the FAQ entry.

You can start with letting others know about the site. :-)

You can also visit my Amazon wishlist(s). The first is things that I have an immediate need for, while the second is more varied in both breadth and price and include many privacy related books.

If you want to go high-end and help with my photography habit I also have a wishlist at B & H Photography.

You can of of course always send cash for me use to cover my hosting charges. Or if you are outside the USA, exchange rates would probably eat up the donation, so maybe some interesting looking stamps or bills. Or maybe a nice card on the site's anniversary, which is July 4,1999

Paul Hardwick
Privacy Digest
PO Box 1482
New York, NY 10274

The Google search should have all the content covered. But the new in-house search function(at the top of the page) only goes back to March 18th 2007 I will be putting the old archives in the CMS at some point, and then all content will be search-able by either function.

Yes, but you will need to create a user-ID before you can do it.

More details will be coming when I get a chance.

More details will be coming when I get a chance.

I want to let you know about a few changes I have made to the site. My old CMS(Content Management Software) was starting to have problems that were more serious than I wanted to deal with, so I moved up the implementation of my new CMS system. Yes there were a few bumps in the process, but things are basically in place. Not all the features are activated as of yet but I will be implementing them as time permits.

I will be converting the old entries to be under the new CMS, but it will probably be a while before I can do that. Until then I will leave the old pages in place.

There have been a few changes to the sites structure

* With the new system, instead of having mini-sites for each sub-issue, each entry will be tagged with the topics it relates to. By clicking on these tags(Under each article or in the tag cloud in the navigation bar) you will be given a list of additional articles that have this tag. There is also a page that will list all the tags and tell you how many articles each contains. I have not converted the archive yet(and it will probably be a while) to the new CMS so it will only be counting entries made since the cutover(Sunday March 18th,2007)
* The RSS/XML files have also been relocated. http://www.PrivacyDigest.com/rss.xml is the new global one, and there will be one for each tag so you can follow those specific issues that interest/concern you.
* If you go to the full page view (not the teaser view on the front page) of a post there are now a row of ICONs/titles at the bottom. These ICONs will let you flag / bookmark the page on various services such as Google / Yahoo / Digg / Reddit / Delicious / Newsvine and search for other people talking about it via Technorati.
* If you go to the Syndidate entry in the Navigation area on the left side. In addition to the RSS feed ICON you will also see a link called more which brings up http://www.privacydigest.com/sitemap This page lists all the various TAGs/categories on the site. Next to each entry is a count showing the number of entries(at the moment just since March 18th, the archives still have to be included) and an RSS ICON which links to that TAGs own RSS feed.

There will be many new features coming as I finish the site. I was a bit rushed so not everything is in place yet. You can use the contact form(from the menu at the top right) to let me know what you think or about any problems.

More details will be coming when I get a chance.

The old RSS address should have a post that directs you to the basic level of the site and more info about the current RSS feeds is at: http://www.PrivacyDigest.com/sitemap

The base RSS feed is at: http://www.PrivacyDigest.com/rss.cml

These pages look different than you have seen in the past since I am switching to a new CMS(Content Management System). This new CMS has not gone live yet.

To follow issues and news that can impact your privacy.