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The world of email marketing, whether that be black hat spammers or the so-called legitimate email marketers, is a slimy little world, one I've had to immerse myself in for the last couple of days.
Datran Media, a leading email marketer, just settled with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for $1.1 million dollars for knowingly buying marketing databases from companies that promised their customers they would never sell or share their info with any third party.
Not surprisingly for any longtime reader of this blog, the biggest list Datran bought was from Gratis Internet, the good guys behind the FreeIpods (now known as Freepay) marketing scheme. (For more on why the scheme won't work out for most people, despite its legality, see one of these prior posts (1, 2)). Gratis remains under investigation by Spitzer, and smart money says they will soon be settling themselves, for a good deal more than $1.1 million.
When Datran bought the list in July 2004, Gratis's privacy policy was certified by Truste, who, after being asked in 2004 to investigate why third parties were spamming Gratis's customers, couldn't find any privacy violation. Nor could Truste be bothered this week to reply to repeated requests to explain their role or why people should continue to trust its seal of approval. For its part, Datran likes to portray itself as being the fall guy -- but Gratis didn't change its privacy policy until sometime in September or October of 2004, way after they got involved with Gratis.
It's all just one slice of a sleazy, sleazy world, and I can only say I'm glad my job doesn't involve barraging people's inboxes with unwanted though ostensibly "legitimate" emails, trying to get people to believe in a free lunch or providing PR cover fire for these slime balls. Leander has more on his run-ins with these fine folks over at the Cult of Mac blog.
Full Wired News story here.
Technorati Tags: freepay, freeipods.com, privacy, truste, freeipods, spam, spitzer, datran, peter martin, rob jewell
Posted by Ryan Singel at March 16, 2006 01:15 PM
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I have enjoyed many of your articles. Keep up the good work. DS
Posted by: Dan at March 22, 2006 10:43 AM