Thousands sign up to Stay Private website

A website set up by Consumer Focus to let people reduce unwanted cold calls and junk mail is proving very popular.

More than 10,000 people have signed up to the independent consumer watchdog’s Stay Private site, which brings together the Direct Marketing Association's various preference services. These include the Telephone Preference Service.

Although it has been possible to opt out of receiving unwanted calls and junk mail online for some time, it was felt that unifying the process into a single site would make it simpler and more efficient.

Joe Cicero, head of Consumer Focus Labs, the online arm of Consumer Focus, said: “Our new site offers a single online form and the option of a user account, which means customers only have to give information once and can easily make changes – saving consumers time and effort.

“We hope thousands more consumers will sign up in the coming weeks and months and reap the benefits of this service.”

A representative for Consumer Focus said that once a person has signed up, it usually takes a few weeks for cold calls and the amount of junk mail to diminish. He warned however, that while it can drastically reduce the problem it may not end it completely.

The consumer watchdog said when people sign up for an account on the Stay Private site they have a choice about what is done with their data and can ask for it to be destroyed. Members can close an account at any time.

“We can either keep it, which will make it easier to submit changes to the opt-out services and register with new services as we add them, or we can destroy it once we've finished the submissions.

"If you ask us to destroy it, we will keep your name and email address and the dates on which we submitted you to each service, but we will destroy everything else,” said Consumer Focus.

If people do want their details stored, this information is kept securely in an encrypted database.