How Stop AARP Co-Branded Junk Mail and Further Contact Sharing?

Hi, This is from the Contact Us page. 

Anybody? 

Am looking for where the settings might be to restrict/filter AARP from sharing my info to junk mailers...? 

Thanks,

Same question.

It is a shame that AARP will not respect our privacy and that we cannot opt out of third party junk mail via our profile.

We have seen probably a 10 fold or more increase in junk mail in the past half year, since joining AARP.

According to the chat bot; you have to chat or call the customer service line during office hours Mon-Fri to be removed from third party sharing.

I am skeptical if that will do any good, since they already passed our info on to so many different parties. 

OK here's what I learned:

AARP does appear to default all it's membership into sharing their personal contact info with 3rd parties for the purposes of marketing products and services.

AARP does NOT provide ANY online options for opting out of sharing/selling your personal contact information with third parties. Nor is there any option for opting out that I recall at the time of enrolling online or via paper.

The ONLY way to stop your personal contact information from being shared with 3rd parties is, after enrolling, to call 1-888-687-2277. Have your member # ready. Respond to the voice bot with "Something else" followed by "Representative". 

The representative seemed to know exactly how to do this and opted me out of everything including "3rd party" etc. It will take 12 weeks to take effect however. 

Maybe they divulge this in the fine print when I enrolled - but I certainly don't recall it. Now that I've jumped thru the AARP hoops to stop it, hopefully in 12 weeks there will be no more junk mail. But the damage is done - my personal contact info has been shared and I hardly expect these companies are going to purge their systems of my information. 

AARP does plenty of good and in many respects is a fine organization. But I believe it to be less than genuine and forthright on the part of AARP to default members into such 3rd party sharing of personal contact information.

AT A MINIMUM: AARP needs to do a better job of advising members that they share your contact info by default AND to make it MUCH EASIER for members to opt out. I cannot think of a single other organization that that retains member information and doesn't provide an online option for opting out.

Let's not just complain but see if we can get this fixed!?!?

It would be best if they simply didn't do it by default in the first place. But as others have surmised, I suspect it's a revenue source to sell member contact information. And this is where AARP's interests are in conflict with mine. 

I am going to write a letter to AARP:

AARP

ATTN:  Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan
601 E Street NW
Washington, DC 20049-0001

I don't see a more effective way than to send old fashioned letters to the above address. Calling or sending emails will likely not bubble up to the decision makers is my concern.

I'll complain about my information being shared and propose that AARP do a better job of explaining to members that their personal contact information will be shared by default and the need to make it easier for members to fully and completely opt out via their online accounts.

Further, once the site is back up again, I'll look into filing a privacy complaint with the FTC at: ftc.gov/complaint

Finally there is a great podcast called The Perfect Scam where the host Bob Sullivan covers among other things, how to protect your personal information from being shared. Maybe this is worth mentioning in a future podcast. Of course AARP sponsors the podcast - but I do think it's worth a shot on educating listeners how they can better protect their information shared by AARP.

Again - I think AARP is a fine organization but it has room to improve here and the only way to get AARP to notice and improve is for enough of us to complain and then give AARP a chance to fix this. So let's be fair about this and let them know our objections and see if they can fix this in time.

Thanks!

The link they gave is a partial direct link unfortunately.  I was able to go to the help page help.aarp.org   (And if my text here doesn’t hyperlink, type that into your browser directly since links don’t always work here) Help.aarp.org 

Type communication preferences in the search box there.  

Adding another way as well. At the bottom of AARPs website you’ll see “Your Privacy Choices”. Click that and it will take you to the Privacy Hub.  Pics below.

1st pic is the bottom of AARPs webpage.  Next is where that leads..to the Privacy Hub.

How to limit sharing: Which will stop AARP affiliate/third party postal mailers connected to your membership.

• Visit AARP’s website and select Privacy Hub and/or Your Privacy Choices (bottom of webpage). Both options will direct you to aarp.org/privacy > Fill out form “Right to opt out of sharing”. Enter name/email connected to your AARP account as well as your AARP member number. This will ONLY stop the affiliate/third party postal mailers connected to the membership number provided.

Unsure of membership number - see physical membership card, nine digit number on mailing label of AARP Magazine/Bulletin, log into AARP account and view your digital card.

If you continue to receive AARP affiliate/third party postal mailers you may have an inactive account.

• Locate old/inactive accounts: Visit AARP website (do NOT log in)  > search “Renew Membership” > select renew membership article (several may be listed) > renew now > Enter name/zip code of  current/old addresses as well as DOB. Old address info can be found via free lookup websites like truepeoplesearch and credit reports (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion & Innovis).

If account is connected to said info it will say “welcome back xxxx” and list name/address/partial account number. Select “edit” - to check if there is an email connected to account.

TIP: If your able to locate this old membership number limit sharing to this membership before closing account.

• Close inactive account - Email request to member@aarp.org, call AARP at 1-888-OUR-AARP (1-888-687-2277) Monday - Friday or use chat option. Explain you would like to close your inactive account OR merge both accounts.

The sudden and horrific amount of email I have received after subscribing to AARP is stunning.

I literally never had more than 1-3 a week. It 90% home owner, loan, insurance , sex aids and finance.

Suspect and targeted ads. What a crap organization. My very few previous ads were garment and house wares.

this is all from AARP selling my info. Yes I have opted out, but the damage is done.