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Email marketing regulations around the world
- moaw 7y agoSomething I've searched for clarity on but have never been able to find is differentiating between notifications and marketing email. If you join a social network, does that network need to get your explicit consent to email you notifications about events or actions that might happen on the platform such as a new followers, connection requests and so on? I understand that they would need to for marketing related emails like recommendations on who to follow etc but do event / action notifications fall into that same marketing category?
- joering2 7y agoTechnically that would fall under action-based email aka Transaction email. Postmarkapp has good explanation [1] It means user triggered some action, like recently signed up or message you so you receive notification of new message awaiting you. This would be different than email marketing - when social network decides one day they want to inform you about the newest features. You didn't ask for that email and it wasn't specific to your actions but rather bulk message send en-masse. [1] https://postmarkapp.com/transactional-email https://postmarkapp.com/transactional-email
- moaw 7y agoCheers, thank you.
- ceejayoz 7y agoShouldn't this mention the CCPA? And the EU more broadly than just Germany and the UK?
- jonathanbull 7y agoAs far as I know CCPA isn't enforced until 2020, but yes, it eventually should. We'll also try and cover more EU countries soon. Pull requests welcome in the meantime.
- eli 7y agoDoes CCPA say anything about email marketing beyond how you obtain or share the address with others?
- TazeTSchnitzel 7y agoOr the wider EEA, which is also subject to GDPR.
- bduerst 7y agoThis is great. Can someone do it for direct mail marketing as well? It's more of a mine field than email.
- reaperducer 7y agoDirect mail keeps me warm in the winter.
- United857 7y agoI usually opt-out of all marketing emails whenever I can, but my pet peeve is when e.g. my bank tells me about a new feature in their mobile app or something otherwise trivial, and claims it's a "important account-related" email that I can't opt out of. To me, important is "We saw $5000 charges to your account from Elbonia, can you verify?". "Download our new app with new redesigned UI!" is not.
- jermaustin1 7y agoWhat about notification of an actual account level feature like: "We now support instant transfers between you, and your family/friends!"? Would you still consider that a marketing email or a notification?
- paulie_a 7y agoIt's marketing focused You might have opted in by joining the service but those are worthless emails no one gives two shit about.
- United857 7y agoIt's marketing to me. It's fine if you communicate it via your website or app when I log in. But do not send me email, SMS or push notifications about these things if I don't want it, those should be reserved for "action required" things.
- choward 7y agoThat's absolutely a marketing message. It's most likely a feature that I don't care about and benefits the company more than me. I don't need my phone to vibrate. If I received a transfer that's a different story.
- rkagerer 7y agoIt might be less intrusive if they queued the news for inclusion at the bottom of my next "You received a transfer" email.
- paulie_a 7y agoYou can basically do what ever you want want with minimal if any repisal It takes 7 business days to get removed. My ass. It's an instant transaction or the company is incredibly incompetent.
- reustle 7y agoThe only reasonable explanation for this I've seen is that some of these companies are sending 10s or 100s of thousands of marketing emails, so they use large queuing systems. Sometimes these batch jobs are queued up and fired off some time in advance. 7 days give them a window to cover this queue length. Sure they could add a 'blacklist' check on the send action level, though.
- paulie_a 7y agoIt's a simple field. I don't care how many emails. It's trivial at best and blatantly illegal at worst. Remove me this second from your spam list. If I unsubscribe and still receive additional emails I report it as spam and to the fcc. I'm sick of email spam. It doesn't take 7 days. It's a simple database update. "do not send to this person". Done. Its a dark pattern and should be punished. I have suggested against shitty companies that spam people like. They lost a year contract. 7 days my ass. If you can't get your database working I'd be happy to help.
- jonathanbull 7y agoRelevant: https://twitter.com/Joe8Bit/status/1156312965265707013 https://twitter.com/Joe8Bit/status/1156312965265707013
- philshem 7y agothe back-end to end all back-ends
- reaperducer 7y agoIt was a good story until he got to the point where he assumed that the only reason a step needed approval from another office was "racism." Seriously? Is he so inexperienced in a corporate setting, or so unimaginative that this is the only thing he can come up with?
- techntoke 7y agoIf only USPS had similar regulations, but instead they are proud to sell your information to companies for spam mail.
- Geee 7y agoIn B2B the rules are bit different at least with GDPR. Direct sales / marketing via email is possible without any consent or previous relationship. It has to be targeted to the right person in the company (the person who makes decisions about buying whatever you're selling).
- notfromhere 7y agoThat's definitely not true. That legitimate interest loophole people think exists really doesn't.
- robin_reala 7y agoYep, and that’s the loophole the upcoming ePrivacy directive aims to fix (it was meant to launch at the same time as GDPR but reasons). https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/proposal-regulation-privacy-and-electronic-communications https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/proposal-...
- singron 7y agoI was reading CAN-SPAM and I came across the definition of "electronic mail message" in 15 USC § 7702(6) > The term “electronic mail message” means a message sent to a unique electronic mail address. Note that it doesn't specify anything about SMTP or any specific email protocols besides the address. I wonder if messaging systems that use email addresses as identifiers might unintentionally be subject? E.g. Ads shown through Facebook custom audiences with email address lists.
- cabaalis 7y agoCAN-SPAM has worked well in that I generally don't get random spam anymore. But, the cold marketing emails. Woooooow, the cold marketing emails. Several of them, Every. Day. It's epidemic in my inbox.
- ghaff 7y agoI don't know how much is CAN-SPAM and how much is that SPAM filtering became so effective that old-fashioned SPAM basically doesn't work any more (if it ever did). >Several of them, Every. Day. Lucky you. Between the fact that I'm on PR lists, I attend events all the time, I download various company info for my job, etc. (Plus companies I've ordered stuff from etc.) I probably get closer to 100/day. Periodically I make a point of systematically opting out of mailings I can't imagine ever caring about. But mostly I rely on Gmail tabs and just skimming my email for anything I actually care about.
- driverdan 7y agoMost cold marketing emails I get are spam and in violation of CAN-SPAM. Unfortunately pursuing it isn't worth the time.
- paulcole 7y agoWow. Several daily? Are you able to stay on top of it yourself or do you outsource the task?
- Sir_Cmpwn 7y agoIf you read this as a guide for how to do email marketing (which the authors, an email marketing company, clearly want you to do), then you're part of the problem. These regulations don't exist for you to edge up to the line and spam people within their margins. Spam is still spam, and anyone who sends it is an asshole. That's all there is to it.
- nategri 7y agoWow turns out email marketing is illegal everywhere. That's what it says, so no need to read it for yourself.
- chrisMyzel 7y agoNot quite right: > CAN-SPAM, unlike most other email marketing legislations, works on an opt-out basis. There is no requirement for consent to contact subscribers based in the USA. You must make it clear how to opt-out and honor those requests promptly, within ten business days.
- mobjack 7y agoEmail spam has went down mostly from self regulation. ISPs are vigilant about blocking IP addresses with bad spam reputation. They also block IPs that have a sudden surge in volume. Email marketers have to manage their own IP address reputations to be effective. If too many people mark your email as spam, then the IP could be blacklisted.
- dillonmckay 7y agoI think it has more to do w/ SPF, DKIM, and DMARC enforcement. I think your IP becomes blacklisted simply by being reported to a blacklist.
- nojvek 7y agoNot to discount the anti-spam algorithms. I religiously mark spam emails as spam. Gmail is quick at learning. 90% of my email is promotions which I never look at. I just hope gmail had an auto unsubscribe. Most of the time unsubscribe doesn’t work since sites require humans to click some button or entire their email again. I am far more worried about real mail spam. Can I do something about that ?
- chrisMyzel 7y agoWhat if I send a similar offering to someone looking for explicit contact e.g. a Job Offer with a contact email receives a mail from me with a remote service instead of a in person worker
- WA 7y agoI think the "Consent required" column for Germany is wrong. Just because you have an existing business relationship doesn’t allow you to send marketing emails. Marketing usually requires an additional opt-in (under GDPR). Although in practice, I see this being violated quite often. Correct me if I’m wrong.