E-mail coalition proposes guidelines combating spam the Responsible Electronic Communication Alliance set out its proposed best practices and enforcement guidelines for e-mail in September at the net.marketing conference in Boston. Calling unwanted e-mail “a dark cloud over this industry,” Chris Wolf, RECA president, said the proposals include the four elements of the Federal Trade Commission guidelines: notice, choice, access and control. RECA expects to finalize the standards early next year.
In practice, the RECA notice principle would mean that a marketer must tell e-mail recipients what information it is collecting from them, how that information is to be used and who may receive it. It also proposes that users have access to their personal information and that they can change it. And each e-mail would prominently display instructions for unsubscribing.
RECA would require its members to use a “single opt-in” procedure under which a consumer who wants to be added to an e-mail list checks a box on a Web page agreeing to do so. The marketer sends a “confirmed opt-in” e-mail to the consumer indicating that his or her name has been added to the list when there’s likelihood of an inaccuracy. The consumer need take no more action. The only exception to this process is a pre-existing business relationship.
The enforcement procedures proposed “go further than HR 3113,” the Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act, passed by the House of Representatives in July, Wolf says. RECA would issue a “seal of approval” when members join the group and agree to comply. Those who violate the guidelines would be subject to a “sliding scale” of penalties, ranging from warnings and fines to forfeiting the seal and ejection from RECA.
But complaints would not automatically result in a penalty. “Due process is a part…that will distinguish us. We won’t make ad hoc decisions,” Wolf asserts.
Members told DIRECT that they are discussing having a third-party organization, such as Ernst & Young, manage enforcement. Such a third party would work – sometimes with RECA – toward resolution. Complaints that couldn’t be resolved would be subject to an appeal.
“By having an external third party, it adds authority to the due process,” says David McCay, vice president of corporate marketing at Netcentives, a RECA member.
What compels RECA’s marketing clients to comply? Geoff Smith, director of client programs at ClickAction Inc., points out that since most e-mail delivery companies are part of RECA, a company that refuses to comply would have nowhere to go.
Already, the 16 application service providers and list companies that founded RECA are following the spirit, if not the letter, of the proposed standards, say members.
Still, with federal legislation looming, how will the group persuade lawmakers that e-mail providers and marketers can regulate themselves? RECA does not yet have a lobbying arm, but those in Congress have a reason to talk to RECA, says Peter Arnold, executive director of the group, because “both parties want to be perceived as Internet-friendly.”
The Direct Marketing Association, however, does have a lobbying arm for Internet issues, the Association for Interactive Media. Pointing out that he was lobbying against a provision of the Electronic Mail Act on Capitol Hill the week before, Ben Isaacson, AIM’s executive director, says RECA may work on “short-term objectives, but AIM’s objectives are macro.”
AIM’s members include both traditional direct marketers and pure-play Internet marketers, and AIM has to represent many interests, he adds.
“I think the DMA has been slow to react,” admits Regina Brady, vice president of partners and strategic development at Flonetwork, echoing other members’ private observations. “That’s one reason RECA came together. But Bob Wientzen wants to find a way to bridge the two groups.”
Many RECA members also belong to the DMA and don’t plan to resign their membership.
RECA hasn’t decided whether to ask Internet service providers to join the group, but will seek the ISPs’ opinion on finalizing the guidelines.
Privacy groups, such as the Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS), which maintains the Realtime Blackhole List, will not be invited to join RECA, but will be asked to provide input, maintains Arnold.
Nick Nicholas, former executive director of MAPS, charges RECA’s confirmed opt-in proposal “is an opt-out policy. Anyone can go to a Web site and put anyone’s e-mail name in. That doesn’t mean that person has opted in to be put on that list.”
Nicholas adds he was in favor of RECA’s notion of due process, though. MAPS’ lack of due process “is one reason I left MAPS.”
Nicholas has been working with Rosalind Resnick, CEO of e-mail service provider NetCreations, in the formation of another e-mail standards group, which includes MAPS. Resnick’s camp is developing guidelines that incorporate MAPS’ rule of verified opt in.
But the sale of NetCreations to DoubleClick Inc., may change Resnick’s involvement. The merger will allow DoubleClick to offer both double opt-in names, as collected under NetCreations’ protocols, and single opt-in, per the policy established by DoubleClick. Resnick did not return calls by press time.
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