We have never signed up to HelloFresh but they have sent us mail through the post!
ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
71–80 of 144 posts
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#72Amazing 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
I don’t think so, not for me at least… because any time I hear their name I’m going to remember what the ICO says, especially when we ourselves take time to ensure our own checkout is fair. £140,000 is a slap on the wrist so I am sure they will learn a valuable lesson to respect customers a bit more.
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
In a moment of frustration several years ago I marked my mobile sim provider as spam for the same reason. They later deleted my account, and had apparently only notified me via SMS using the same marketing account (and no other channels).
I got a late payment fee from Klarna for a similar reason. They kept spamming my phone with push notifications, so I revoked their permission to send them. Some time later they weren't able to charge my card and only communicated this by push notication (they had my phone numer, email and postal address). The invoice was something like a week away from being sent for collections when I opened the app by accident and saw it. I go out of my way not to do business with them since then.
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#74I receive a lot of physical mail from HelloFresh and there's no clear way to opt-out. I've never (willingly or knowingly) signed up to their service or any marketing bits.
I've been getting tons of physical mail I didn't ask for for years. We need a spam filter for the USPS. I only check my mailbox when I know something I want is coming, or if I need some grocery ads for kindling, because it's all garbage. It drives me insane how wasteful it is, chopping down trees just to make mailers that noone wants.
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#75Amazing 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.
Did you reply to the right comment? Who mentioned the EU? What do consumer protection rights have to do with the article or my comment? Consumer protection rights are about good and services, not data privacy.
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#76Less than a fifth of a penny per spam message. This will not act as a deterrent.
Regulators typically start with a small fine and then if the behavior continues, fines and penalties increase exponentially. Having worked inside a number of companies who've received fines, the ones that intend to continue operating change their behavior immediately and install controls to avoid this escalation path. The obvious exception is when the behavior change creates an existential threat to the core business…
But we could have an actually punitive first fine to deter other companies from trying their luck at ignoring the law.
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#77The worst about Hello Fresh is the subscription itself, you get meals every week, unless you opt-out. Of course that you will forget to opt out at some point, so they just send you 3 meals of their choice. No 'Hey, we will send you this, are you ok with it or do you want to change it?'
Plus, the receipes aren't that good if you are an above average cook. You get something Indian and it is a gringo version of the real thing, even if the real thing is easy to do.
Or, there is a mistake in the recipe, such as an ingredient not appearing in the walkthrough. I subscribe to stuff like this so that I can cook without using my brain after being tired, not having to check meticulously every dish.
After two months, I happily unsubscribed. The scammyness aside, I do not see any advantage in using the service for how much it costs.
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#78I receive a lot of physical mail from HelloFresh and there's no clear way to opt-out. I've never (willingly or knowingly) signed up to their service or any marketing bits.
I've been getting tons of physical mail I didn't ask for for years. We need a spam filter for the USPS. I only check my mailbox when I know something I want is coming, or if I need some grocery ads for kindling, because it's all garbage. It drives me insane how wasteful it is, chopping down trees just to make mailers that noone wants.
It doesn't help with the spam but if you sign up with USPS's Informed Delivery, you can at least see if you're getting anything that day. Which can at least save you trips on collecting your mail until you receive something you care about.
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#79I receive a lot of physical mail from HelloFresh and there's no clear way to opt-out. I've never (willingly or knowingly) signed up to their service or any marketing bits.
I've been getting tons of physical mail I didn't ask for for years. We need a spam filter for the USPS. I only check my mailbox when I know something I want is coming, or if I need some grocery ads for kindling, because it's all garbage. It drives me insane how wasteful it is, chopping down trees just to make mailers that noone wants.
I don't think you can opt out of this kind of advertising, and it's important that people en masse don't, because it subsidizes the entire mail system.
Re: ICO fines HelloFresh £140k for spam texts and emails
#80There seems to be a lot of anti-ICO rhetoric in the comments, which I don't think is entirely fair. Reading the enforcement notice, it seems that the ICO were satisfied that the breach was negligent rather than intentional. HelloFresh have fully complied with the investigation and taken steps to remedy the breach. Bearing in mind that the ICO's remit is to ensure compliance rather than dole out punishment, this seems…
Agree, not sure it’s helpful for a regulator to bankrupt a business for sending too many emails. Spam email is pretty par for the course nowadays. This seems like a proportionate response to alert them to get a handle on it.