Sounds like it's still an acceptable cost of doing business.
It's a first-time fine. It goes up roughly 10x if they do it again.
Still about two or three decades too cheap...
ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
21–30 of 144 posts
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#22As someone who is stressed by all the spam emails, texts, whatsapps and robo calls in my digital life, I appreciate this news a lot. Great going Mr. Sunak, keep giving them more fines until this "spam business" becomes unprofitable!
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#23Man I wish no private corp was allowed to contact you without an opt-in. Would really make email useful again....
Yesterday I created an account on John Lewis' website, and I was please to see that during sign-up, they had an unchecked "Tick here if you want our newsletter."
Then, later I placed an order, and during credit card checks I noticed a "Tick here if you do NOT want our newsletter", which was of course unchecked and that's how the fuckers got me.
Fuck this dark pattern, and fuck the Product Manager that requested it. There literally should be a law that says you cannot ask a user to check a box NOT to give away their data.
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#24It seems like they are basically selling papal indulgences on the cheap? Who gets the revenue they generate from absolving these companies of their sins?
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#25HelloFresh seems to be optimising for user count above all else (incl profit). They keep offering their big -40% loss leader promos to people that cancelled. Must be costing them an ungodly amount.
That's the venture capital grow-at-all-costs-so-we-can-exit model pretty much all startups want to go for.
You know what else grows unchecked until it has consumed all resources of its host?
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#26Man I wish no private corp was allowed to contact you without an opt-in. Would really make email useful again....
Yesterday I created an account on John Lewis' website, and I was please to see that during sign-up, they had an unchecked "Tick here if you want our newsletter." Then, later I placed an order, and during credit card checks I noticed a "Tick here if you do NOT want our newsletter", which was of course unchecked and that's how the fuckers got me. Fuck this dark pattern, and fuck the Product Manager that requested it. T…
I just mark all marketing emails as spam now. Since I never want them, I can't have opted in to it so it's spam. Seems very effective at having my email provider forward all future emails from them to spam and hopefully tarnishes their sender trust rating a little.
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#27HelloFresh seems to be optimising for user count above all else (incl profit). They keep offering their big -40% loss leader promos to people that cancelled. Must be costing them an ungodly amount.
60% off first box now with free delivery and "3 free gifts", according to latest spam. I'm holding up for the free Tesla ;)
But I don't like the onboarding: they ask to register, provide details and address, and payment card details before they let you choose your meals.
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#28HelloFresh seems to be optimising for user count above all else (incl profit). They keep offering their big -40% loss leader promos to people that cancelled. Must be costing them an ungodly amount.
Reps literally tell you to sign up with a different person in the house and keep getting discounts
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#29HelloFresh also sends marketing snail mail if they have your postal address. The market starts to be crowded and they are obviously aggressively marketing their product. We'll see if that can last. It's crazy that they got $367 million in total funding for a recipe and ingredients (meal kits) subscription business but they apparently now have 6 billion euros in revenue so it seems to work.
The worst part is that (at least in Canada) this isn't illegal. Unsolicited calls, texts and email are illegal but snail mail is fine.
It seems that all form of communication should have the same rules, but the laws are special cases. Probably if they start messaging you via WhatsApp that is also fine.
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#30HelloFresh seems to be optimising for user count above all else (incl profit). They keep offering their big -40% loss leader promos to people that cancelled. Must be costing them an ungodly amount.
40% less revenue does not necessarily mean loss.