Ethics in email marketing 3

[Aqif]

Hi All:

I just like to raise the issue reagarding ethical issues and privacy involved in email marketing. In many people view, email marketing is nothing but "SPAM".

I just like to mention that will it not be better idea to set some ethical guidelines to email marketing becasue if we will not do that then the email marketing industry will become a SPAM producing industry.

Any comments regarding addressing the ethical issues involved in email marketing and how people privacy can be protected?

Cheers!
Syed Aqif Mukhtar

 

[FXWizard]

If I could pick one thing that annoys me the most about mass e-mailing it is how most of them use phony addresses -- when I "bounce" spam, almost all of it comes back as "message could not be delivered" which, AFAIK, means they're using a fake return address.

If they want me to treat them as a legitimate business then they can bloody well act like one and give me a return address that works so I can opt-out of their junk mail.

 

[campyracr]

Couldn't have said it better myself FXWizard.

 

[GlenJohnson]

What I like is when there's not even an entry in the "From" column. I blow those away without even thinking about it.

Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com


"There is nothing like a dream to create the future."
Victor Hugo (1802-1885); French writer.

 

[welshtroll]

Before E-mail, snailmail marketing advertisers bombarded us with countless competitions and services.The introduction of E-mail as a delivery method for advertisers has increased their potential auddence.

Now not only do i wake up to 1 or 2 junk mails through my letterbox but 5 to 10 in my inbox.

Yet no matter how, much Anti-spam databases and services try it will always be there. Unfortunatly it has become expected part of the internet and I think the worst is still to come.

Imagine if you will, signing on after 3 days of not being online and a nasty 'mail server is out of space' message confronting you. Your 3/4 full inbox combined with all the other users 3/4 full inboxes on the same network causes big problems.

I just recently put together a top ten list of 'titles of SPAM mails that made me laugh'.
'Does my thumb look big in this?'

elshtroll

 

[ANFPS26]

I use one email address for miscellaneous stuff such as when I order things over the net. I have another one for personal email. Well, recently I ordered an item from Microsoft and gave them my juck email address. The next day I started receiving an unwanted "porn" email. Do you think Microsoft sells email addresses to porn sites or could I have just been mass spammed? "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[ANFPS26]

Make that "junk"........ "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[sleipnir214]

<sarcasm type=caustic>
Microsoft? The company that has never bothered to install the patches (or at least, major service packs) on the OS CDs it sells? Microsoft? Sell your email address to a bad spammer? How could this be?
</sarcasm>

To them, it's probably just another revenue stream. ______________________________________________________________________
My God! It's full of stars!
______________________________________________________________________

 

[ANFPS26]

Yeah, I'm pretty well conviced they got my email address from that transaction. I'm watching my credit card bill closely, also, to see if they got my credit card number. Of course, as I speculated before, Microsoft probably just added my name to the list they sold to the porn spammer. What I ordered was the Win98 SP 1 CD. They no longer offer it as a download on the Windows Update page, but you can order the CD. They also claim that the CD is free, but they charge $5.00 shipping and 41 cents tax; so they are making money on the deal, and even more if they're selling the email addresses to porn spammers. &quot;A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.....&quot;

 

[sleipnir214]

nobrain, I have only met personally one person who has had his credit card number ripped off after an online purchase. He used that card one place only, &quot;brick and mortar&quot; or online: Microsoft. ______________________________________________________________________
My God! It's full of stars!
______________________________________________________________________

 

[CajunCenturion]

Why am I not surprised? As we all are aware, Microsoft is not a software company, not a technology company, and certainly not a service company.

Microsoft is a Marketing Company, and they will sell whatever, to whomever, provided they can make a buck. Confidentiality does not exist, and email addresses are just another one of their products. Next time you get some spam, look at how many of the other addressees are at xxx@hotmail.com or yyy@msn.com

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[sleipnir214]

<paranoia level=max>
Did you ever wonder if maybe that's what Microsoft's Passport initiative is really all about?

Collecting more email addresses to sell?
</paranoia> ______________________________________________________________________
My God! It's full of stars!
______________________________________________________________________

 

[MasterRacker]

If you want fuel for paranioa, read these items among others about what could really be behind Palladium:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/tcpa-faq.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25891.html

http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/opinion/story/0,10801,72501,00.html

Jeff
No matter how bad it is, it can always get worse ....

 

[sleipnir214]

Like anyone with his own brain installed has any doubt what Palladium is all about: money. Specifically getting more of it for Intel and Microsoft.

This whole idiocy has been brewing for years in the U.S. Senate. ______________________________________________________________________
My God! It's full of stars!
______________________________________________________________________

 

[xutopia]

there are no ethics behind email marketing. That is why it is called junk mail or spam. If I want to learn something about a product I use google or go to the web page to see the catalog. I don't need a waste of bandwith and bytes in my inbox. Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran

 

[GUJUm0deL]

Already one major company responsible for the email spam mailes is going to court here in the USA...
The company called GATOR, a few companies have filed cases against GATOR saying that its unethical for them to poping up ads on the browsers and emailing spam...
But just like Napster, if one dies another will take its place... I have not failed; I merely found 100,000 different ways of not succeding...

 

[SteveTheGeek]

Illegal and unethical and immoral are three distinct concepts, though they overlap 80% of the time.

The spammers customarily claim that they are protected by their right to freedom of speech. Most communities have laws whereby someone shouting in a public place (no matter what they happen to be saying) will get dragged away for being a public nuisance, I wonder at what point we'll lump spammers into the same legal definition?

That being said, I would propose making no criminal or civil laws against spammers. Even federal laws will simply force the spammers to continue from countries that don't have any laws against it (and stay moderately untraceable in any case), and can you imagine our special-interest-plagued, mostly mis- or un-informed on technical matters U.S. Congress passing an adequate, coherent, and enforceable law without spending billions of dollars in the process? Corporations can keep their mail gateways updated, and private individuals can keep acquiring better-tuned antispam software instead of using a legal baseball bat on a problem that requires a scalpel.
-Steve

 

[tviman]

Isnt it odd that we think that spammers are bad people? Have you ever wondered why we don't take the postal service to task for sending all the junk mail that they do? It's really quite simple - we can't! Also, the Post Office gets paid to carry it and there are few regulations regarding what you can send. So maybe we're all barking up the wrong tree. Just as our own physical address is not private, we shouldn't expect our email address to be the same.

My greatest fear is that we will scream too loud about spam to our legislators and they'll pass a ridiculous law that will penalize all of us - like maybe nationalizing the Internet in this country (USA). So far, there is no law in the US about sending spam to anyone. (Direct quote from the FBI - August 11, 2002). As with the Postal Service, it's the content of the message that contitutes the crime. But, if we keeping being the squeaky wheel about it, then rest assured that sending any email will put fear in the hearts of very brave men.

I've been in the computer business for the last 25 years and have always held that user responsibility is the key to successful computing. This holds equally true for email and the internet. If you don't know the sender of the email, delete it! If you purchase items online, do so through a hotmail-type account. The choice, and ultimately the responsibility, is yours alone. Getting rid of spam will be like making prohibition work.

As the saying goes, be very careful what you wish for! There's always a better way...

 

[CajunCenturion]

Its not at all odd that we consider spammers bad people. They are rude, invasive, contribute the overall clutter, and create extra work for us to keep our own space clean. Have you ever wondered why we don't take the postal service to task ... Very simple - they are NOT the spammers. They are a delivery service - they are not the originators of the message. They don't read, condone, or censor the mail - they deliver it, and that's what they're paid to do. If you want to scream loudly at your legislators - more power to you - just be damn sure that anger is focused at the right party. Blaming the post office for junk mail is the surest way of getting a rediculous law passed. Its the content of the message that is the crime - not the delivery service.

The best to way to eliminate spam is to not do business with the spammers. Eventually, they will run out of money. Like a lot of people, I suspect that you delete spam out of hand. I don't. I identify the company who's products are being advertised and make damn sure that I don't ever do business with them, and that they know why. The only way to eliminate spam is to make it cost money - one way or another. Now if we had a law that resulted in a monetary fine against the company who's products are being advertised in spam - then we'll start to see progress in the anti-spam crusade.

But to kill the messenger - that's not the answer. Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[MasterRacker]

With physical spam that has return envelopes, when I have time I sometimes stuff the return envelopes with material from other mailers. It's at least a way to make a point. Spammers hide their return addresses because they know in advance that they are doing something most people want. The only legislation necessary is to require them to reveal themselves in a respondable way. If people could respond, they could make their displeasure known and as CC said, the free market would take over from there.

(I heard of a guy in Colorado that midified a wood stove to burn paper well. He worked hard to get on every mailing list he could find until the Postal Service had to send a special delivery just to him every day. Free fuel, free heat. If only spam could be put to use....)
Jeff
No matter how bad it is, it can always get worse ....