> On Aug 24, 2023, at 6:12 AM, Chris Adams via mailop <mailop@mailop.org> wrote: > > What do you do when legitimate mail (lately, DoorDash order info and > Delta Airlines tickets) is sent to the wrong address? These types of > messages rarely have an unsubscribe method. I get a ton of crap to a > Gmail address that I really only use for Google-related stuff (not as a > general email box), so I know instantly that this is not to me. > > Why do vendors think they don't need an unsubscribe in this type of > mail? Just because their customers are dumb and don't know their own > email address doesn't mean they should continue sending personal > information about them to other people. > --
Well, and also *confirming* the email address to start with. Because not doing so, (oh gosh *especially* for delivery services!) can lead to very bad outcomes, and even liability for the sender! Here are two real examples (pasting them in but link at bottom to full article): Mary and WeedWhackers Mary placed an order with her local dispensary, we’ll call them WeedWhackers. When the order was ready, the online order tracking and notification service that WeedWhackers uses, GetNoticed, sent an email notification to Mary that her order at the dispensary was ready for pickup. Only that notification didn’t go to Mary. It went to someone else, a total stranger named John, because Mary had mistyped her email address, and neither WeedWhackers nor GetNoticed had bothered to confirm Mary’s email address. Within 5 minutes of receiving one of the misdirected emails, using just the information available in that notification, John knew where Mary lived, her date of birth, that she ran away from home at 17, where she gets her taxes done, where she works, what her position is at her job, and that she’s a pot smoker. Mary’s position at her job is one where she is responsible for interacting with customers, and handling a lot of cash. John also knew the frequency with which Mary was picking up pot from WeedWhackers. In any situation where John does something bad to Mary with this information, whether it’s going to her place of work and harassing her, attempting to blackmail her with the information he has, or possibly even assaulting her, both WeedWhackers and GetNoticed would be named as defendants in any lawsuit that Mary brought, as their actions were directly responsible for that information falling into John’s hands. Because the generally accepted best practice in email handling is to confirm an email address, Mary would have a good chance of prevailing in her lawsuit against both WeedWhackers and GetNoticed. Amber and QVC Amber orders a lot of stuff from QVC. We mean a lot of stuff. Amber gets 3 to 4 orders a week from QVC. And QVC emails Amber confirmation notices of each of her orders. And QVC’s delivery carrier, Hermes, emails Amber notices of upcoming deliveries, and also notices of completed deliveries. The only problem is that Amber is not receiving these email notices, because she mistyped her email address; in fact Jason is receiving these notices. These notices include her full address, and even the description and value of the items that Amber has ordered from QVC. Because Amber orders a lot of makeup and skin care items, Jason infers that she is a youngish, single woman. And because he has her full name and address, he finds her Facebook profile, which confirms it. When Jason goes to Amber’s house to break in and rob her (not to mention possibly to do physical harm to Amber) he knows exactly what high-value items to look for. Amber should readily win a lawsuit against both QVC and Hermes, especially because, in the actual situation, both QVC and Hermes were repeatedly put on notice that they were sending the emails to the wrong person, and yet Amber’s misdirected emails continued to flow to Jason. ----- Full article at https://www.isipp.com/blog/the-hidden-legal-dangers-in-not-confirming-email-addresses/ Anne --- Anne P. Mitchell Attorney at Law Email Law & Policy Attorney CEO Institute for Social Internet Public Policy (ISIPP) Author: Section 6 of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (the Federal email marketing law) Author: The Email Deliverability Handbook Board of Directors, Denver Internet Exchange Dean Emeritus, Cyberlaw & Cybersecurity, Lincoln Law School Prof. Emeritus, Lincoln Law School Chair Emeritus, Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop Counsel Emeritus, eMail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS) _______________________________________________ mailop mailing list mailop@mailop.org https://list.mailop.org/listinfo/mailop
