Michael Mayor, president of NetCreations, wants to persuade the e-mail industry to agree to a set of definitions about opt-in e-mail.
Mayor, who is chairman of the e-mail committee of the Internet Advertising Bureau, has initiated talks with the Direct Marketing Association, and the e-mail committees of the Association of Interactive Marketing (AIM) and the Network Advertising Initiative.
"It’s very important before any laws get passed to agree on opt-in definitions," he said in an interview following last week’s Federal Trade Commission Spam Forum in Washington, D.C. "Permission is going to be part of any legislation," Mayor added.
Each of these industry trade groups has its own definition committee, he said. He is asking the leaders of each group to take the definitions back to their membership for a vote. "If we don’t agree then we will discuss it," he added. "The purpose is to get consensus."
The definitions Mayor is presenting to the groups are:
* Double Opt-in: A user has elected to receive e-mail newsletters or standalone commercial messages, generally by checking boxes on a sign-up for. A confirmation e-mail is then sent to the user to which he/she must reply (either by replying to the message or clicking on a url contained within) before the list owner may add them to their list.
* Confirmed Opt-in: A user has elected to receive e-mail newsletters or standalone commercial messages, generally by checking boxes on a sign-up form. A confirmation e-mail is sent but user is NOT required to take further action in order to be included on the list.
* Single Opt-in: A user has elected to receive e-mail newsletters or standalone commercial messages, generally by checking boxes on a sign-up form. No confirmation e-mail is sent and user is not required to take further action to be included on the list.
* Opt-in: Non-specific term defining "some" form of user consent to receive commercial e-mail.
* Opt-out: A user must actively request NOT to be included on a list, generally by de-selecting checkboxes on the sign-up form.
NetCreations, an e-mail marketing company and list manager in New York, long advocated a double-opt-in standard. Mayor’s predecessor, NetCreations’ founder Roslyn Resnick, claimed to be the first list provider to insist that consumers twice actively consent to being placed on e-mail rental lists.
Currently, 95% of NetCreations’ lists are double-opt-in. Mayor said the firm had experimented with single opt-in files for awhile, but now encourages clients to double opt-in their customers before they rent their e-mail addresses.
