Junk Mail No More

I Hate Junk Mail! The picture below represents 3 months of junk mail. This is just the junk mail that has to be shredded and doesn’t count the items that went straight into the recycling.

Do you have this type of problem too? One would think that after a while the companies would realize that their return on investment of sending you mail was really bad (as in negative) and take you off the list. Nope, I swear I get more credit card offers now than ever! Brad and I probably average roughly 10 credit card offers a week. In the past 7 or so years that I can remember getting these sorts of offers Brad and I have responded to one, and that was because it met the following criteria – it was from the bank we already used, was an Amex which we didn’t have and could use at Costco, and it was a super cool looking card (clear with the UW logo on it).

Insert PaperKarma to fix this problem. 

PaperKarma is a FREE app that works on both Android and Apple phones. The app uses the camera on your phone then parses out the information on the envelope and sends a request to the sender to take you off their list. Within a few weeks of submission the mail from that sender should cease (it does take a bit of time to clear out the system).

I started using this app about a month ago; so far I’ve submitted requests to 14 companies and I’m already seeing a reduction in our junk mail. At this point we're down to about 1 credit card offer a week. 

Brad went to highschool and college with one of the PaperKarma founders so I asked him a few questions about this app. 

Is the company required to abide by the unsubscribe request?

I'll go with "probably not." I'm not 100% sure of the laws. There are definitely rules about what companies can do with your personal information and how they can advertise. I've heard that, for example, they're allowed to advertise to you if you have a business relationship (i.e. if you've ever shopped with them). But you should always be allowed to limit sharing of that information (which we request in addition to asking for no more mail).

Most don't *want* to send mail that's unwanted -- it's just a waste of money for them.

Have you ever gotten any nasty emails back from the companies?

Sure. This is mostly due to confusion on their part -- it's not as if we want to prohibit them from marketing. We want better targeting. Consumers should be able to stop mail for which they have no use, which should save companies money.

Is there a Windows Phone version in the works?

We launched on iOS, Android and Windows Phone in February of 2012. Fewer than 0.2% of our user base ever used WinPhone, so we're not going to continue investing in it.

Is there a way for international people to use this app?

Nope, not right now. We'd love to add more, but we need the business to be sustainable in the US first. There are some countries in which it could make sense, and some that already have laws about postal marketing that make it easier to opt-out (e.g. the UK lets you put a sticker on your mailbox) and therefore a reduced demand for the app.

 Are you ready to download it yourself or want to learn more? Head over to PaperKarma's website!