A new consumer-focused anti-spam initiative has launched out of California—where else?—but one of its co-founders swears he’s not aiming to wipe out commercial e-mail.
Peter Mackeonis, technologist and co-founder of Spamfrit.org, said he’s sick and tired of signing up for one thing and getting barraged with e-mails because buried in the fine print of the opt-in process was a provision saying the marketer could do anything they want with his e-mail address.
Spamfrit.org, short for Spam Free Initiative, aims to get non-spamming companies to display a logo on their sites assuring customers they won’t be spammed as a result of doing business with those firms. Mackeonis also said he aims to encourage consumers to e-mail companies they do business with and ask them to display the logo, and boycott companies that don’t.
He also said he’s got plans and technology in place to monitor the companies that display the logo to make sure they don’t send unsolicited e-mail.
“We’re going to troll the sites that put up our validation sticker and make sure they’re upholding it,” said Mackeonis.
The initiative’s main targets include questionable “free-gift” offers, loan and mortgage spam, unsolicited dating pitches and survey spam.
“What we want to stop is where someone gets an offer in their e-mail for a $500 card for a pair of Coach shoes and they end up clicking on six or seven or 10 or 15 different sites before they give up and realize they’ve got to buy something before they get the card,” he said.
He also wants to curb affiliate spam, where unsolicited e-mail is sent on behalf of large brands and the brand managers may or may not know it.
Some of the brands Mackeonis claims have been pitched in spam e-mails are General Mills, Coca-Cola, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Six Flags, Home Depot, Red Lobster and Applebees.
“What we really want to stop is the other end of the viral-marketing telescope when you sign up for one [e-mail list] and you’ve really signed up for 100,” he said. “I don’t want to check a box which signs me up in small print like an insurance form that says they can do whatever they want with my first born. … We don’t want them using our e-mail address to batter us.”
Mackeonis said he plans to get the word out with publicity.
