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Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

please-unsubscribe.com

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Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#231

I'm not sure I understand. If I wasn't going to use my email, why would I care if it unsubscribed or not? What's the difference between this and just using a fake email?

I think you misunderstand. You don’t give out this email to websites. You forward an email from your inbox to them, and they’ll unsubscribe for you.

ohhh got it, thanks.

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he's talking about signing into a preexisting account. It maybe be illegal to require you to sign up, but I don't think it's proven that requiring preexisting customers to sign in to a preexisting account to adjust their communication settings. Personally I'm all for requiring an automation enabled unsubscribe header and double opt in (requiring a response from a subscription confirmation email to subscribe i…

The wording is very clear, you can NOT require login to change subscription settings. A password would classify as additional information outside of email address and preferences. Otherwise someone could sign up with your email and you would have no recourse to end the spam, or the company could just bulk create accounts for you without any way to log in (i.e. Facebook).

> The wording is very clear, you can NOT require login to change subscription settings.

You’re right that wording is clear, though you might have misunderstood or skipped over the scope of this CFR, which is “Non-solicited” messages (https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/316.1), and excludes transactional email (https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/316.3). Since the parent was explicitly talking about any email communication coming from accounts you’ve signed up for, it is important to note that the CFR you’re citing does not always apply.

You absolutely can legally require a password to change some subscription and communication settings relating directly to someone’s account, to require otherwise would be a glaring and massive security hole. It’s quite easy to spoof email addresses, and being able to unsubscribe someone else from transactional email subscriptions would be extremely dangerous.

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#233

Btw, how specific is the American CAN-SPAM act in terms of how the unsubscribe link should work? In my country I sometimes get emails with unsubscribe links that require you to log in first, which can be a pain to pull out the credentials when you don't really remember signing up for it in the first place. Does CAN-SPAM specify, say, that an unsubscribe link 1)must not require a login? 2)must lead to completion of th…

Yes, what they're doing is illegal. [1] § 316.5 Prohibition on charging a fee or imposing other requirements on recipients who wish to opt out. Neither a sender nor any person acting on behalf of a sender may require that any recipient pay any fee, provide any information other than the recipient's electronic mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any other steps except sending a reply electronic mail message…

This does not apply to transactional email, which is email from services you’ve signed up for that relates directly to your account.

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#234

Btw, how specific is the American CAN-SPAM act in terms of how the unsubscribe link should work? In my country I sometimes get emails with unsubscribe links that require you to log in first, which can be a pain to pull out the credentials when you don't really remember signing up for it in the first place. Does CAN-SPAM specify, say, that an unsubscribe link 1)must not require a login? 2)must lead to completion of th…

If you did log in, whether you remember your credentials or not, a company can send you transactional emails, marketing emails, or both. CAN-SPAM does not cover emails that are “primarily” transactional, even if the email is part marketing. Companies are legally allowed to require authentication for updating the subscription settings of transactional email. And you wouldn’t want it any other way, otherwise someone could easily spoof you and unsubscribe you from notifications from your bank about your bank account, or other important email you depend on.

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IME "asked for" is too often code for "bought something 5 years ago", "didn't read the terms and conditions". Rarely real, informed consent. The one exception —again, just in my 20 years experience doing this crap— is when you pay them, eg "10% off your first order when you subscribe to our newsletter". This is still more coerced consent than informed, but better than most subscriptions.

As someone who's been doing email marketing for a decade, you'd be subscribed by how many people are more than happy to sign up to a mailing list without being "coerced" as you describe. We get that you don't like marketing email, but plenty of people do.

It's not just my bias. I'm sensitive to it, but I'm regularly added to mailing lists despite my express lack of consent. We all are.

I also regularly walk clients back from doing exactly the same thing. The perks in marketing don't give a flying French Fancy what the law is. They care about absolute volume.

I did a little exercise last year, took a screenshot of every order form I submitted. I reported a dozen companies to the ICO last year, with documented examples of companies wilfully ignoring GDPR regulations.

Yeah, I'm also fun at parties.

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#237
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, if you send an unwanted email people have no obligation to ensure your company preserves a good spam rating, and are free to do whatever they want to do with your email. The good news is that if you improve your process and send less unwanted emails, they'll be less flagged as spam and you'll keep a good spam rating. The system works basically.

Buuut, it doesn’t. The system that you’re talking about is heavily weighted towards sending more stuff to spam than not. Keeping a good spam rating is an extreme challenge for legit senders, especially when so many people click the spam button for reasons that have to do with laziness and carelessness.

Lasiness and carelessness? If people click the spam button, you are sending them content they find annoying, end of story. No need to bring personal defaults into that, your service is not entitled to their attention.

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#238
post #16

"We will manually unsubscribe you" So, you promise to click on any link called "unsubscribe" in any email we forward to you? Somehow this sounds dangerous. I do hope you are doing that in a proper sandbox or virtual machine.

Yeah it's done on a virtual machine that logs screenshots once a second for auditing purposes.

Screenshots including potential personal data contained in forwarded emails? How long amd where are these screenshots stored and what happens to them afterwards?

Re: Show HN: Please-unsubscribe.com – fwd emails to unsubscribe from marketing

#239
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also a longtime Fastmail user, and I do tend to notice Way More spam and more serious phishing emails.

There are benefits to centralisation, one of which is Google's access to all Gmail spam reports I still prefer to keep my stuff away from Google's grubby hands though. Fastmail's spam filter does get better the longer you train it

Is Fastmail less centralized somehow?
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