just how private do they keep your information

i so badly want these nesting lotus bowls. the first one is from gumps at $95 for 8. the second is handmade with love by whitney smith at etsy. she even makes them in white!. my only problem is, the only way i could feasibly register for everything i want online is to go through myregistry.com and i don't know how to really decode their privacy policy (i realize you can register with etsy). i know there are a lot of smart readers out there, so maybe you can tell me if by using them i'm going to enter married life with 12 telemarketer calls a day and 6 credit card pre-approvals every week (i did the "opt out" thing last year and the junk mail with my personal info has been pretty minimal since then).



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i've heard that when you sign up for "free things" that if you put the words "please do not sell or disclose my information" near your name, they won't. so i signed up for an american express card at costco last year, and put that statement below my name. 3 months later i got a gardening catalogue that bore the following address on the front:

miss Firstname L.
please do not sell or disclose my information
12345 my street
seattle, washington
98001

that statement was there on my address like it was the name of my business! so somehow, by omitting my last name (for real they just used the first letter of it), they respected my wishes? so perhaps your information isn't necessarily more safe with a reputable department store. but then again, they actually profit from your registry, whereas an online registry-keep-tracker would have to soley rely on renting adspace....

and for some more whitney smith love: cake stands and cupcake stands!