I've used most/all of these and they do exactly what they promise. — Tim
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies are permitted to include your name on lists used by creditors or insurers to make firm offers of credit or insurance that are not initiated by you ("Firm Offers"). The FCRA also provides you the right to "Opt-Out", which prevents Consumer Credit Reporting Companies from providing your credit file information for Firm Offers.
Pre-screened credit card offers, etc.
DMAchoice is an online tool developed by the Direct Marketing Association to help you manage your mail. This site is part of a larger program designed to respond to consumers' concerns over the amount of mail they receive, and it is the evolution of the DMA's Mail Preference Service created in 1971.
Catalogs, coupons, special offers.
Customize or opt-out of directory delivery.
Dead-tree phone books of all kinds.
The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home.
It's already illegal for telemarketers to call cell phones. You can de-list your home phone here.
The NAI Opt-out Tool was developed in conjunction with our members for the express purpose of allowing consumers to "opt out" of the behavioral advertising delivered by our member companies.
For example, prevent Google from serving you ads "relevant" to your Amazon purchases.
PrivacyChoice offers tools to help you understand and make choices about your online privacy.
Good suite of tools for blocking ads, securing social network data, and knowing who is tracking you.
Ghostery tracks the trackers and gives you a roll-call of the ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers, and other companies interested in your activity.
Browser plug-in that lets you know which ad networks are attached to the site you're viewing.
Those double-underlined links that show you an ad when you hover over them. Kontera, Infolinks and Vibrant/Intellitxt are the big names, and none of them offers a global opt-out, though they do require their affiliates to let you opt-out.
The NAI Opt-out Tool (above) will get you most of the way. If you're a nerd, you can do something like this:
127.0.0.1 kona.kontera.com
127.0.0.1 resources.infolinks.com
127.0.0.1 images.intellitxt.com
127.0.0.1 *.us.intellitxt.com
Last update: 22 March 2011.