[Gllug] OT - Email Hosting Specialist / Bulk-Mail Issue

[Richard Jones]

On Wed, Jul 25, 2007 at 12:08:10PM +0100, Harry Mantheakis wrote:
> A young London start-up company has hit the buffers with their bulk-mailing
> requirements.
> 
> They routinely send batches of 750 odd emails, sometimes 10-20 times a day.
>
> Their current ISP has started complaining, and has threatened to cut them
> off, but offers no practical solution other than to suggest that only ten
> emails a minute should be sent (!)

Do they have the fully-informed consent of the recipients of this
spam^Wimportant marketing material?  Do they honour opt-out requests
thoroughly?  Perhaps their ISP is complaining because the ISP is
having to deal with complaints.  I can't imagine that 7,500 emails /
day is consuming very much bandwidth.

> What is the 'proper way' to solve this problem?

Not to send spam?  How about they offer some sort of feed to allow
people to decide to subscribe themselves?

> The company has approached me to develop an application, and now they think
> I know everything about IT and computers!
> 
> I've never had to think about bulk-mailing issues :-/

You need to understand the law in this area.  You might want to
familiarise yourself with the Directive on Privacy and Electronic
Communications (DPEC), and the Privacy and Electronic Communications
(EC Directive) Regulations 2003, and read various docs available here:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/Home/what_we_cover/privacy_and_electronic_communications.aspx

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones
Red Hat
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