Isn't 'hunting you down to bring you thoroughly relevant offers and deals' the basic concept of all GOOD DM - regardless of channel?

If Spam is OK (in the spirit of enetering the interweb), why is cold direct mail or calling deemed not to be in the spirit of owning a letterbox or telephone?

The volume of unsolicited calls or mail I receive is nothing by comparison to the amount of spam I get emailed - which makes spam more of an issue and inconvenience, as it takes up more of my time.

I think rather than accepting spam (in much the same way as cold calls and blanket mailings are being rejected) a system should be adopted that creates a two-tiered approach to email – the important stuff in one place and all the other rubbish somewhere else.

Hugh Bessant put forward an interesting idea on his BR blog (B2B101) about a 'contact' email address for essential ‘grown-up’ communications. The idea was that this information could be centrally held, by Royal Mail or similar, and protected in the same way as telephone numbers and postal address data - kept spam free with robust opt-in/opt-out policy. It could be treated like a postal address, only provided to people and organisations trusted by the email address owner and not to be ‘sold’ by the data controller – i.e. companies have to earn the right to get this contact information.

A charge to send to these email addresses could be levied (controlled by RM – like a stamp, only cheaper) and a ‘sender blocker’ could be implemented and controlled by the individual user – like a spam filter, only effective as it would not (ideally) be inundated.

Users would reserve this email address and use a secondary address for ‘non-essential’ comms (in a similar vein to many people’s current usage.)

The primary email address could be linked to life-long info, like an NI number and then follow the owner throughout their life.

This would mean that spam would find its rightful place, in a channel that could be truly controlled, and the email address owners would know that all the emails they received to their primary email would be worth reading.

Obviously, the concept would need some refining and a fair amount of infrastructure, but aren’t RM looking for something to keep them at the sharp end of communications…

See Hugh’s original post here:

community.brandrepublic.com/.../38698.aspx

Personalising content and delivering relevant advertising (i.e. behaviour targeting) online will only succeed for consumers and for advertisers if it is done in a trustworthy and transparent manner.  

The industry is responding to a call for appropriate guidelines. We firmly believe that the way forward is through educational campaigns and other mechanisms that provide consumers with information about online advertising practices, the choice to opt-out and consumers’ ability to control their online experience.  

To keep the industry moving forward, we must certainly respect the need for privacy, but we also need a method for analysing campaign success – the industry must work together with consumers to achieve a happy medium.

In the US, the Network Advertising Initiative (www.networkadvertising.org) is an example of how this issue has been managed successfully, with ad networks working closely together to offer such opt-outs.  Opting out from ad networks means that the network from which the consumer opted out will no longer deliver ads tailored to his or her Web preferences and usage patterns.  However, it is important to help consumers understand that deletion of the cookie that enables the opt-out, or other cookies generally, would reverse that opt-out without the consumer necessarily realising what is happening.

Data protection and privacy have now come of age – it is ill-advised for any ad server or advertiser to ignore the opinions and attitudes of consumers.  By taking a practical, down-to-earth approach to data protection and privacy, we can simplify good practice for the majority of organisations who seek to handle personal information well.  If organisations fail to meet their data protection obligations, they not only risk enforcement action by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), they also risk losing the trust of their customers.  It is also equally important for individuals to be aware of their information rights and to take steps to protect their own privacy.  A good starting point is the ICO's extensive data protection guidance for organisations and individuals (visit www.ico.gov.uk).

We’ve set a goal to educate consumers about their information rights and on the application and use of cookies and we’re committed to responsible practices and guidelines, including providing information through educational campaigns that explain the benefits of relevant advertising and also provide the ability to opt-out of behavioral targeting.  Privacy options should be transparent and displayed prominently.  It’s our responsibility to do so.

Thanks for your comments Gotnoteef and Kit.

Good point about the deletion of cookies too. It would mean having to re-opt out all over again.

Simplicity really is the order of the day. Otherwise it'll just pass most consumers by.