Ask HN: Anyone else receiving unsolicited Datadog marketing spam?

#1

Post by OJFord » Sun, Oct 30, 2022, 12:53 PM UTC

I keep getting 'reaching out' and 'just following up' (because I haven't replied) spam from Craig Cummins 'DevSecOps Enablement' at Datadog.

One of them even said something like 'you may be wondering why you are getting this, do not worry, I got your email from our internal CRM' -- ..ok that's fine then?! No mention of how it got there. No idea why Cummins thinks it's how he specifically got my email address to use in a work capacity that might be a concern, or why 'from my employer' would be a useful answer.

It's incessant, and sure it has an 'unsubscribe' link but of course I never subscribed to your 'tell me how paying for Datadog might benefit me' spam, I shouldn't have to unsubscribe.

I assume many others here are getting this crap too?

If you happen to work at Datadog, I'd suggest telling the relevant teams that this sort of thing is only going to make people not use Datadog's services. (Or frankly, just tell Craig Cummins if that's a real employee's name - it's always him.) It's terrible for 'developer relations'.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else receiving unsolicited Datadog marketing spam?

#2

Post by manfre » Sun, Oct 30, 2022, 1:47 PM UTC

They went as far as calling my personal cell with a marketing/sales pitch. Their sales practices are obnoxious and the reason I will actively try and keep them out of any company I work with.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else receiving unsolicited Datadog marketing spam?

#3

Post by apohn » Sun, Oct 30, 2022, 2:05 PM UTC

I would not take any of it so seriously. This is really common across multiple companies. I'm work in a Data Science org and get so much crap like this.

I think there is some CRM that automatically sends these emails to all the email addresses in their system. Your email address is easy to figure out since every company has something like first.lastname@company.com, finitiallastname@company.com etc. You can use LinkedIn to find people with a particular job title and then spam them.

The most comical set of emails I received was from a company that used an ever escalating set of words and images (e.g. a sad puppy) to try and make me feel guilty and respond. I found the sad puppy one so amusing I almost replied just to say the email made me chuckle.

Click the SPAM button and send it to your Junk Folder. Eventually the CRM system will realize you are never going to respond.

Occasional a sales person will contact me on LinkedIn or tries more personal ways to reach them, I just say that I'm not in a position to make any evaluation or purchasing decisions and I don't know anybody who does. That usually stops everything quickly.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else receiving unsolicited Datadog marketing spam?

#4

Post by tommoor » Sun, Oct 30, 2022, 2:26 PM UTC

It's a shame because the product really is excellent and engineers in general are particularly allergic to such scammy hard-sell sales tactics

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else receiving unsolicited Datadog marketing spam?

#5

Post by icedchai » Sun, Oct 30, 2022, 2:29 PM UTC

Marketing spam is a fact of life. Just unsubscribe, delete, and/or ignore because nothing is going to change. There are entire industries (CRM, Marketing Automation, commercial data brokers, etc.) built on this.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else receiving unsolicited Datadog marketing spam?

#6

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Oct 30, 2022, 2:31 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else receiving unsolicited Datadog marketing spam?

#7

Post by intellirogue » Sun, Oct 30, 2022, 2:35 PM UTC

tommoor wrote: post #4

It's a shame because the product really is excellent and engineers in general are particularly allergic to such scammy hard-sell sales tactics

Yup. I did a trial and their product came out on top, but their sales tactics were so aggressive that I went elsewhere. They were trying to call me 6+ times a day.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else receiving unsolicited Datadog marketing spam?

#8

Post by gingerlime » Sun, Oct 30, 2022, 2:36 PM UTC

If you’re in Europe (or a citizen living outside) you can make a GDPR subject access request to get a copy of your data. Try to specifically ask for a record of how your data was obtained. And you can also ask to be deleted permanently. It might or might not work but it’s what you are entitled to under the GDPR.

edit: check out https://yourdigitalrights.org/ which might give you some templates and check whether you’re covered by other privacy regulations in case the GDPR does not apply.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else receiving unsolicited Datadog marketing spam?

#9

Post by kmarc » Sun, Oct 30, 2022, 2:37 PM UTC

Yes, and yes they also reached out to me on my personal cell phone and on my work email. I blocked the gentleman, Philippe literally everywhere because I got so annoyed by him.

I also tweeted @datadoghq publicly to finally stop bothering me. No calls / emails / LinkedIn requests since then.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else receiving unsolicited Datadog marketing spam?

#10

Post by Dayshine » Sun, Oct 30, 2022, 2:42 PM UTC

gingerlime wrote: post #8

If you’re in Europe (or a citizen living outside) you can make a GDPR subject access request to get a copy of your data. Try to specifically ask for a record of how your data was obtained. And you can also ask to be deleted permanently. It might or might not work but it’s what you are entitled to under the GDPR. edit: check out https://yourdigitalrights.org/ which might give you some templates and check whether you’r…

The argument they make is that it's OK because they got your details from a "public" data source, plus guesswork. E.g. LinkedIn plus your company domain. They're still supposed to notify you when your info was transferred to them though.

The problem is that this is in breach of LinkedIn terms and conditions, which means I immediately write off the company: if they can't lawfully find marketing leads, which should I trust them to lawfully process my business data.