Conference Spam 2

I am seriously sick of the junk mail I get every day from conferences. Some is vaguely related to my professional field. Most is not even slightly related. After my last post on the subject, I’ve had several positive comments from people for raising the issue.

Tonights is “International Technology, Education and Development Conference” inted2012@inted2012.org

My most basic demand is not to be removed from their mailing list, but rather be removed from the list which they presumably purchased.

Anybody know more law than me? i really want to ruin the day of the people who bulk mail me any conference spam not relateted to a paper I recently published or a registered request to get this crap.

I believe in the UK, under the data protection act, I could send £10 and ask for the data of where they got my name. Has anybody tried this? I don’t give a darn about the money, I want to alter this sucky lame culture.

My other idea is to start compliling:

(a) a reasonable guide to what is reasonable action to take in the UK. I don’t want to be removed from each conferences list, I want to be removed from their source list, so methods for actually achieving this would be valuable.

(b) a list of conferences which spam me when I’ve not registered an interest in getting emails in this field. Plus a list of their sponsors. I want to know who’s paying these people to spam me.

I know it’s hardly the biggest issue facing academia right now, but I react very badly to being told I just “have to accept the way the world works”. Sod that.