http://www.radiantcore.com/ All of the Radiant Core posts tagged with opt-in. en-ca Copyright 2006, Radiant Core Inc. All rights reserved. webmaster@radiantcore.com webmaster@radiantcore.com Jay Goldman <info@radiantcore.com> http://www.radiantcore.com/blog/archives/07/06/2006/privacyregs http://www.radiantcore.com/blog/archives/07/06/2006/privacyregs http://www.radiantcore.com/blog/archives/07/06/2006/privacyregs#comments
So, no real harm done. One potential sale lost and we moved on (though we still haven't found a decent UML package - any advice?). Then all of a sudden today - mere hours ago - a newsletter from said software company lands in my inbox. Given how unimpressed we were at being asked to fork out for a demo, we certainly never subscribed to a newsletter.

More to the point, it's actually illegal. Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) regulations specifically prohibits contacting people for a purpose other than the one you originally collected their information for - i.e.: exchanging emails with someone doesn't give you permission to add them to your mailing list. We spend a fair bit of time working with our clients to make sure that their sites conform to PIPEDA (which is more strict than equivalent US regulations if I understand correctly), not only because it's important to treat your clients with respect, but because it's the law.

Addendum (June 7th, 2006): in all fairness to the unnamed, privacy fouling miscreants, their newsletter did include an obvious unsubscribe address. No confirmation came back, of course, so I suppose it's the "I'm unsubscribed until I'm not" game. One baby step forward.
]]> Marketing Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:35:00 GMT