THERE are hazards in buying stuff online.

I don't refer to your financial details being pilfered, which is unusual. No, the risks I'm thinking of include items taking weeks to arrive or not being in stock or coming in a different colour from the photie.

But, worse than these, for sheer dastardliness, for the breaking of agreements, is the practice of inviting you to tick a box saying you don't want regular emails, newsletters or offer from the company under advisement. And then ignoring it. True, in most cases, it's then usually quite simple to "unsubscribe", probably because some authority somewhere makes them provide this service. But when you didn't subscribe in the first place, their cheek in waddling uninvited into your inbox is deplorable.

I don't know if Karl Marx, Adam Smith or any of these economist dudes noticed this, but capitalism is all about hustling. They're always in your face and, these days, when our faces are increasingly glued to screens, that's where the capitalists position themselves.

Of course, not all capitalists are bad. You may buy something from a holistic health company and find their newsletters thrilling or amusing. But when you specifically didn't ask for them, it fair messes up your chakras and blooters your inner serenity, ken?

It's time for some good old-fashioned compulsion in internet affairs. A few rules. Prime among these must be the understanding that, when we tick a box saying we don't want something, we shouldn't get it, if you get my d.

After all, we went to all that trouble of clicking the tick. We paid attention to the tricky bit whereby sometimes you have to unclick a tick or where a clicked tick actually means you want the pestilential missives. We played by the rules. Time for internet businesses to do the same.