In writing my last post, about the 4-year lifespan of the iPod, I wanted to check out the Chicago Tribune article. Lo and behold, I needed to register for the site, and although I’ve registered for a lot of news sites, I hadn’t registered for this one. It’s not really that big a deal, since I use Roboform and it allows me to enter my default information and login easily, but … even though I could opt-0ut of partner emails, the Tribune would still have the right to email me. Uh, uh.
Some advertisers may prefer to contact you directly. Please check this box if you do not wish to be contacted directly by a non-affiliated advertiser. If you have checked this box, we will not share personally identifiable information provided on this form with non-affiliated advertisers for such purposes. However, we will continue to include you in our e-mail announcements, as explained above. Information is used as described in our privacy policy. Source: Chicago Tribune Registration Page
Nope, I wasn’t going to subject myself to more spam. So, I remembered my old favorite … BugMeNot.
For those that don’t know, “BugMeNot.com was created as a mechanism to quickly bypass the login of web sites that require compulsory registration and/or the collection of personal/demographic information (such as the New York Times).” All you have to do is enter the URL of the site in question … if someone has generously set up an account and “donated” it to BugMeNot, you don’t have to take the time to set up one … or lose your privacy.
I used a login from the site, and it worked. Of course, many sites actually take the time to “weed out” old accounts they figure out are supplied by BugMeNot, so not all will work. But if you want to get to a site, and you don’t want to register … take a look at BugMeNot.
