When Does Signing Up Become 'Opting In?' 151
AmyVernon writes "This piece from RWW got me thinking about whether, when you sign up for access to a site, you're actually signing up to get a slew of email spam from them. The single opt-in is still really popular, which I've noticed because I often check the box indicating I don't want further emails from a company or publisher. I always assume that giving my actual email address means I'm going to get spam-type emails from whomever. It still surprises me that most people don't. But it does raise a good question: Shouldn't you be able to sign up for something without automatically being signed up for a never-ending stream of 'updates?'"
Re:They now have a vested intrest in not spamming (Score:5, Interesting)
This is very, very slowly getting through to the managers, though.
I had a boss not too long ago who simply assumed that everyone who ever bought a product wants to get our newsletter. I warned him that we might end up on blacklists, he chose to belittle my being a scaredy-cat and ignore me.
Last I heard is that he's fighting a losing uphill battle to get off the various spam blacklists because NONE of his emails get to their recipients anymore, and he noticed that it's not building trust in a company when you have to phone a possible business partner who has a commercial spam filter to tell him that he has to dig through his spam for your mail.
Some managers don't get it (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked for a company that had a manager who insisted on sending out a newsletter to everyone in the company customer database. We warned him that was illegal. We warned him that would be spamming.
He refused to listen and ordered the email sent.
The entire company was blocked from sending emails less than 24 hours later.
You should have seen him rant and rave about the importance of getting the emal "fixed." His manager found out about the "newsletter", and fired him on the spot.