Opt in / opt out requirements for mailing lists

Andy Linton

4 Sep 2007 4 Sep '07

11:51 p.m.

With the new legislation re spam do the members of this list need to be seen to be validated in some way? I know we're all grownups here who can ask to be taken off a list if we want to etc but is there any requirement to be seen to do the right thing? What about other lists that people operate?

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Dan Clark

5 Sep 5 Sep

3:10 a.m.

I guess we already manually 'opted in' in the first place, rather than being automatically signed up. Dan On 9/6/07, Andy Linton wrote:

...

With the new legislation re spam do the members of this list need to be seen to be validated in some way? I know we're all grownups here who can ask to be taken off a list if we want to etc but is there any requirement to be seen to do the right thing?

What about other lists that people operate?

_______________________________________________ NZNOG mailing list NZNOG(a)list.waikato.ac.nz http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/nznog

Steven Heath

3:21 a.m.

On 06/09/07, Andy Linton wrote:

...

With the new legislation re spam do the members of this list need to be seen to be validated in some way? I know we're all grownups here who can ask to be taken off a list if we want to etc but is there any requirement to be seen to do the right thing?

What about other lists that people operate?

As long as you have two key aspect covered it should all be fine. Also lets assume that NZNOG posts are not all spam :-) The operator needs explicit method of knowing that the person has agreed to join a list or be sent ad hoc messages. Double op in for a list or a signature on a form type thing is ideal. The second is clearly show how the person can get off the list or stop the messages. Most of this stuff has been common since mid 90's for listserv type software. I would be shocked if anyone on this list would even have to send out a 'click here to keep getting our nifty HTML based emails!' (this comment may not apply to said employers of list members thou :-) -- Steven Heath Director Foxbane Consulting DDI: +64 4 978-7306 Cell: +64 21 706-067

Mark Foster

4:35 a.m.

On Thu, 6 Sep 2007, Steven Heath wrote:

...

On 06/09/07, Andy Linton wrote:

...
With the new legislation re spam do the members of this list need to be seen to be validated in some way? I know we're all grownups here who can ask to be taken off a list if we want to etc but is there any requirement to be seen to do the right thing?

What about other lists that people operate?

As long as you have two key aspect covered it should all be fine. Also lets assume that NZNOG posts are not all spam :-)

The operator needs explicit method of knowing that the person has agreed to join a list or be sent ad hoc messages. Double op in for a list or a signature on a form type thing is ideal.

As already pointed out, lists like NZNOG (and others) already have express (via double-opt-in) consent. Public mailing lists such as this one don't really factor on the radar of the UEM Act per se.

...

The second is clearly show how the person can get off the list or stop the messages.

Most of this stuff has been common since mid 90's for listserv type software. I would be shocked if anyone on this list would even have to send out a 'click here to keep getting our nifty HTML based emails!' (this comment may not apply to said employers of list members thou :-)

Even worse, the number of 'We've assumed you want to keep hearing from us, so if you do, don't do anything. If you don't wish to hear from us, please reply to Unsubscribe' messages generated in the last week or so is suprising... That said, most of those being vendor/customer relationships, chances are the consent is 'deemed'. http://www.antispam.govt.nz/ makes good reading - but I have no doubt most of NZNOG has already done that... Mark.

Craig Whitmore

4:50 a.m.

...

Even worse, the number of 'We've assumed you want to keep hearing from us, so if you do, don't do anything. If you don't wish to hear from us, please reply to Unsubscribe' messages generated in the last week or so is suprising...

I have large spamtraps set up where where set up with a few old domains which where used extensively 8+ years ago which used to get lots of emails per day from NZ companies. Over the last month I saw a huge reduction of emails coming from .nz companies and this is good. Yesterday I checked the spamtraps and.found quite a number of spam still from NZ Emails from company mailing lists without any unsubscibe links Emails to say please reply if you want to continue getting the emails (this is on the 5th so it was too late to send them out) Emails to say please reply if you don't wnt to continue to getting emails (this is wrong) Blatent Spam from a small startup company spamming 100's of domain registrars/computer companies Broken Unsubscribe methods All shall be forwarded to www.antispam.govt.nz Also anyone noticed *.govt.co.nz -> *.govt.nz ? Thanks

Nathan Ward

4:57 a.m.

On 6/09/2007, at 4:51 AM, Andy Linton wrote:

...

With the new legislation re spam do the members of this list need to be seen to be validated in some way? I know we're all grownups here who can ask to be taken off a list if we want to etc but is there any requirement to be seen to do the right thing?

Whether or not we needed to, I think we've covered it now. -- Nathan Ward

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participants (6)

Andy Linton
Craig Whitmore
Dan Clark
Mark Foster
Nathan Ward
Steven Heath