Chinwag's Old Blog: October - Government Spam Crackdown
It's official. From October all unsolicited email in the EU is illegal. No, really, it's true. Well, kind of. In reality legitimate companies need to give the customer an option to subscribe and also be clear about what they're going to receive.
Simple things really, which bona fide email marketing firms have been advising their clients to do for years. What's interesting is the tone of the article, which reads like an old-style Points of View letter from Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.
The quotes from two peers are particularly enjoyable:
Lord Sainsbury said: "I can't think that it helps anyone in any activity, including voting, to have their computers flooded with some of this quite distasteful material."
Labour's Lord Mitchell said such nuisance advertising and sometimes pornography was "literally choking the internet".
Thank heavens someone is looking out for us. Just a shame that the countless offers of various enlargements and farmyard activities aren't being sent by companies or individuals who will actually pay the slightest attention to the law. Perhaps the solution lies with the various white-listing services that are cropping up...or perhaps the recent crack down by the free email providers will help.
10 March 2003 by Sam Michel
Sam Michel is the founder of Chinwag and blogs here for work, and more randomly at Toodlepip. He runs Chinwag Jobs, Digital Mission and tends to focus on murky place where technology, community and marketing collide. You'll find him on twitter @toodlepip.
Sam Michel is the founder of Chinwag and blogs here for work, and more randomly at Toodlepip. He runs Chinwag Jobs, Digital Mission and tends to focus on murky place where technology, community and marketing collide. You'll find him on twitter @toodlepip.
