[Gllug] Spam

[Richard Jones]

On Fri, Oct 14, 2005 at 12:25:36PM +0100, Tethys wrote:
> 
> "Rev Simon Rumble" writes:
> 
> >Ticketmaster, Seetickets, every other ticket extortionist under the sun.
> 
> Indeed. Ticketmaster claimed "As a Ticketmaster user, you agreed
> that Ticketmaster may contact you by email and use and disclose the
> information you submit". Errr... no. I'm one of the few that read
> the privacy policy at sites I visit, and take extreme care to opt
> out of any and all marketing. So no, I didn't agree to that, you
> lying fscks.

Doesn't matter even if you did.  Under the aforementioned law you are
allowed to decide to opt out at any later time.  There's some useful
guidance on the law here:

http://www.dti.gov.uk/industries/ecommunications/directive_on_privacy_electronic_communications_200258ec.html

(Go down to Guidance on Regulations section)

Since I've been doing "marketing" for the past year or two I've had
the opportunity to talk to plenty of people who do various sorts of
the more legitimate email marketing.  We (Merjis) always recommend to
clients that they follow the law to the letter and make the
instructions for opting out clear and simple.  The problem is that the
clients don't see the law as having any teeth - it's big on saying
what's permitted and what's not, but light on penalties and
punishments.

Email marketing of this sort works: we dealt with a food company who
contacted previous customers by email with a special offer, and the
take-up was very high (something like 1 in 8 took up the offer and
ordered a meal).  But the companies that are in this area really need
to take opt-outs much more seriously.  Until a legit email marketing
firm (and not just obvious spammers) is hammered with a big fine, no
one's going to take any of this very seriously, and that's a big
shame.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, CTO Merjis Ltd.
Merjis - web marketing and technology - http://merjis.com
Team Notepad - intranets and extranets for business - http://team-notepad.com
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