The degree of confirmation after a name is entered into an online form was the focus of discussion at a hastily called meeting of industry experts Friday following e-mail marketing company yesmail.com’s legal action against a privacy group.
At the close of the hour and one half meeting, attended by 12 representatives from all walks of the industry, the group had formed no definitive conclusions, but had outlined three principles and agreed on further discussion. The meeting was held at the offices of NetCreations in New York.
The principles are: An opt-in model for existing databases; a double-opt-in standard or some type of closed-loop confirmation for prospecting databases that would be phased in within six months for those that do not currently employ the standard; and finding a way to make up-front permission work with backend verification.
Not all were in agreement on the double-opt-in policy which has been the sticking point for years in attempting to set industry-wide standards . But Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters Corp., a privacy advocacy and consulting firm in Green Brook, NJ, which sets double-opt-in as its required standard, said that some middle ground was discussed. All agreed that to go back and double-opt-in a list that had already been collected with a single-opt-in standard was onerous, he said. One suggestion was to grandfather those lists and to move forward with a double-opt-in policy on future prospecting files.
Dave Tolmie, CEO of e-mail marketing company yesmail.com in New York, said that he was pleased that the group had made progress but that no formal conclusions had yet been drawn. He said that the meeting was the first of a number of gatherings to gain comment from others within the industry and work toward finalizing standards.
“Within the group there is a strong desire to establish recommended standards so that we can ensure that everyone in the industry is receiving quality e-mail marketing,” Tolmie said.
Last week yesmail.com obtained a temporary restraining order against privacy group Mail Abuse Prevention System LLC in Redwood City, CA, to prevent the group from listing yesmail.com on its Realtime Blackhole List of alleged spammers.
Catlett added that there was wide consensus on another issue, the necessity to authenticate names. He said that deliberate, malicious pranks–such as signing an enemy up for Weight Watchers–and Web users accidentally inputting an incorrect e-mail address happen often. There was a difference of opinion, however, over whether it was better to get an unrequested e-mail or to require people to say yes twice.
“It’s not a big burden on the consumer if they are really interested in getting the information, but if you really didn’t ask for it then it’s spam,” Catlett said.
Rosalyn Resnick, CEO of NetCreations, who initiated and hosted the meeting in her New York offices, said that the guidelines were voluntary.
Twelve industry representatives attended the meeting including representatives from DoubleClick, the Mail Abuse Prevention System LLC and ClickAction.
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