Live from Seattle: AIM Council Members Disagree About E-Mail Guidelines
Not all the members of the Association for Interactive Media’s Council for Responsible E-mail were 100% behind the resolutions that passed on Monday. “We’re not convinced that the DMA opt-out policy speaks for all direct marketers,” said Rosalind Resnick, chairwoman/CEO of e-mail list development and management firm NetCreations Inc., New York. AIM is a subsidiary of the Direct Marketing Association.
Resnick, who is a member of the council, said she proposed to the group that it pass a resolution supporting opt-in for third-party e-mail lists, in addition to the other resolutions. But, “AIM decided to table that for future discussion,” she recalled wryly. She was not the only one on the council to support opt-in, but she was in a minority, she admitted.
Instead, the resolutions call for informing the consumer about how their e-mail address will be used at the time of collection, giving the consumer an option to unsubscribe and discouraging marketers from harvesting e-mail addresses with the intent to send bulk unsolicited e-mail without consumers’ knowledge or consent.
This amounts to a stance in favor of opt-out e-mail, Resnick said–a stance that does not do enough to influence legislators and the public that marketers are not out to harm them. “DoubleClick is being penalized for something it hasn’t even done yet,” she said. As a result of the publicity surrounding DoubleClick, “public opinion has shifted” against direct marketers. “We need to work with lawmakers to make sure legislation suits our needs.”
Other council members say AIM has gone far enough. “I think AIM has taken some great first steps, said Jay Schwedelson, corporate vice president of list company Worldata Webconnect, Boca Raton, FL. “There are more steps to be taken, but they have to be taken at the right speed.”
“If we came out with the philosophy that we only accept opt-in e-mail, that attitude could spill over into direct mail,” said David O. Schwartz, president of 21st Century Marketing, a list company in Farmingdale, NY.
One dot-com executive, observing these developments and closely watching the privacy debate, said postal consumers demanding control over the mail they receive would help e-commerce companies. “The more the old paradigm changes, the more it helps us,” said Tim Choate, chairman, president and CEO of Freeshop.com., an e-mail marketers that collects consumer names through the use of giveaways and special offers. “If marketers are more restricted offline, the more it helps us…we’re 100% opt in.”
Traditionally, offline consumers never knew what information was being collected on them or what they could do about it if they didn’t like it. “The Internet has changed all that,” Choate said. “Consumers can opt-out and spread the word across the Internet if something goes wrong.”
Consumer activism against the collection of data online and offline can be prevented, Resnick said. But it will take the DMA being a lot more proactive, she added. “If we’re going to succeed, we need to tell people what we’re doing to support the consumer. No legislation made us use opt-in e-mail, we pioneered that.”
The resolutions are merely guidelines to help companies doing business on the Web to regulate themselves. They will not be enforced by AIM or the DMA. AIM will propose the resolutions to the DMA this spring.
