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ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails

ico.org.uk

51–60 of 144 posts

Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails

#51

Man I wish no private corp was allowed to contact you without an opt-in. Would really make email useful again....

It’s already the case with GDPR. (B2B spam is different)

If you get a random sales/marketing email, you have the right to find out where they got your details from and where did they get your consent to email you.

Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails

#53
post #3

The ICO has always been a bit of a wet blanket. Never really uses its powers effectively. From pathetic fines to putting out press releases about raids before they happen. £140k is just the cost of doing business with 79 million spam emails and 1 million spam texts.

> putting out press releases about raids before they happen

This sounds like a Chris Morris sketch, got a link to share?

edit: I think it's referring to the Cambridge Analytica scandal

Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails

#56

Amazing result for Hello Fresh. What a bargain. The article is a pro business advert. The ICO is a joke and only exists so the Government can pretend there is regulation and oversight

Weird take since the ICO has been about the only major privacy watchdog outside the EU to fine these companies. The EU is literally the last bastion of consumer protection rights.

ACCC (Australia) issues fines too. I think we've fined Kogan a few times.

Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails

#57

> As part of this investigation, it was also discovered that the company continued to contact some individuals even after they had requested this to stop. If the messages had an opt-out mechanism that worked, they likely would have gotten away with the other things.

It’s funny how the opt out mechanisms are the buggiest part of all the systems in a company. And the slowest. I had a message the other day: “We will try our best to unsubscribe you within 30 days”. Well, don’t strain yourselves

I think it's because some emails might have already been sent and be sitting in the outbound mail queues of various mail servers. Some of those might retry for up to 14 days.

Hence, 14 days to be sure you won't get any more emails.

Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails

#58

Amazing result for Hello Fresh. What a bargain. The article is a pro business advert. The ICO is a joke and only exists so the Government can pretend there is regulation and oversight

Weird take since the ICO has been about the only major privacy watchdog outside the EU to fine these companies. The EU is literally the last bastion of consumer protection rights.

I think parent is saying the exceptionally low fine sets a bad precedent for this being a slap on the wrist offense - that it would be better if no action were taken to at least give an aura of potential accountability for other bad actors.

Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails

#59

[flagged]

> Why would you continue to subscribe to a bullshit company that does this?

They said they subscribed which could mean that they have since unsubscribed. I think they’re texting them because they want them back as a customer - it makes no sense to pester your currently paying customers.

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