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Sep
26
The Online Trust Alliance Forum: The Training You Need to Bullet Proof Online Security and Trust Practices
Chief Privacy Officer
Join us at the Online Trust Alliance’s 6th annual Online Trust Forum (with a special discount for Return Path readers)
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Categories: Best Practices How-To View Comments
Jun
30
Prospecting Under CASL
Chief Privacy Officer
Since Canada recently passed a new national anti-spam law (which I’ll refer to as CASL – Canada’s Anti-Spam Law) I’ve been thinking about how this may affect lead generation and business prospecting by email. Honestly the CAN-SPAM Act is not hard to comply with, and still folks fail to meet the standard – and CASL appears to me to make things a bit tougher.
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Categories: Best Practices Commentary Return Path View Comments
Oct
4
ISPs Are Not to Blame for Delivery Challenges Faced by Marketers
Chief Privacy Officer
At Return Path we work hard to make email work better for everyone who has a stake in it. This includes marketers, as most people know, but it also includes ISPs and mailbox providers. It’s not easy for either party, but the problems for ISPs in particular are noteworthy. They are tasked with protecting their network and users from an unending onslaught of spam, scams, viruses and malware. It is a daunting task to handle inbound email accurately – getting the wanted mail to users’ inboxes while also protecting these customers from receiving dangerous and unwanted messages.
Our recent report on the deliverability landscape in Europe has caused some consternation in some corners, with one publication even dubbing it a “slam” on ISPs.
It is a shame that our report was skewed this way – and so to be blunt and clear, it’s flat out wrong.
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Categories: Commentary News Return Path View Comments
May
12
More Regulation in Our Future? A Webinar with the FTC
Chief Privacy Officer
When it comes to privacy and behavioral tracking, the FTC has largely given the direct marketing and email marketing industries a mandate to “self regulate, or else.” We’ve done a pretty good job of that as an industry, but this year we may see some additional attention paid to our success. You simply must be aware of these issues, and so I’m happy to invite you to join me at a DMA/Email Experience Council webinar with the FTC later this month. Attend to get the full scoop (see details and a discount code below). …
Categories: News View Comments
Mar
24
Changes to Return Path Certification Standards
Chief Privacy Officer
This week we are announcing an upgrade to the standards of the Return Path Certification program. We will no longer certify mail streams which are strictly comprised of “third-party marketing” email (e.g., email-based advertising that is not accompanied by content and is sent on behalf of a different company than the one to which the end user subscribed in the first place).
This upgrade in standards comes after listening to …
Categories: Commentary Commentary View Comments
Feb
22
More of the same?
Chief Privacy Officer
It’s a new year – and if you are like me, you’ve read the many predictions about email for the year 2010. Initially we avoided jumping on the prediction bandwagon and instead released a report the trends that mattered most for email in 2009.
But, alas, we couldn’t resist looking forward. As we head into March – it’s too late for predictions, but not too late to underscore the imperative issues that face all of us in the email industry today. What trends will impact reputation and inbox placement rates? Regular interactions with our ISP partners give us unique insight into their issues and challenges and how they will influence email marketing in 2010.
Our Email Imperatives paper is an introduction to what will matter for email marketers this year. We’re pleased to present this initial overview, and look forward to publishing more papers throughout the year – each paper to come taking a deeper dive into a particular imperative.
So, no lofty predictions here – just the straight story – what matters most for you for when navigating the choppy waters of email deliverability over the next 12 months.
Download the paper here.
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Categories: Commentary View Comments
Oct
22
The Battle Up North: Canada Fights for a Spam Law
Chief Privacy Officer
No, Canada is not being invaded by Russia, or even Greenland, although that might be an easier battle than this. Like many in the email and privacy space I am keeping tabs on our colleagues to the north as they work to pass Canada’s first national spam law. Canada is the only G8 nation that has not already enacted such a law.
The process began many years ago, but it only really got rolling this past April. The draft law was introduced, read, reviewed and referred to committee in June, where experts and others testified publically in support of the law. The process was well underway and seemingly on track.
But over the past few weeks things have taken a turn that could lead to the law being weakened or scuttled altogether. In particular, the Canadian Marketing Association, having already stated their broad support for the law, recanted on some points and began lobbying on a number of issues, including subscriber consent.
As I watch this unfold I can’t help but think that this process of vigorous debate is ultimately what will ensure Canada gets a solid, useful spam law that actually matters. …
Categories: News View Comments
Sep
15
Return Path Goes Green!
Chief Privacy Officer
Sure, going green is all the rage these days, but I’m not talking about “human-ecology” green, but rather “online-trust-ecology” green.
Earlier this month, we activated an Extended Validation SSL certificate for our senderscore.org website domain. For those who aren’t familiar, EV certificates are an enhanced type of domain registration. They were introduced largely to address phishing and other Internet fraud which continues to degrade consumer confidence.
When consumers visit an EV SSL certified domain site they will notice a green address bar signifying registrant identity verification for that site (see screen shot below). The EV certification process is carried out by a certifying agent, in this case GoDaddy, which follows a carefully designed procedure (designed by the Certification Authority Browser Forum consortium) for validating the identity of a domain owner.
As for whether it helps consumer confidence – at least one study says so. …
Categories: News View Comments
Jun
3
OTA Proposes Online Trust Principles
Chief Privacy Officer
In our recent webinar with the FTC we confirmed that the agency is open to continued industry self-regulation – as long as they see some action. I suspect that like me, most of us in the email industry prefer the self regulation ideal. We took the opportunity with our conversation with the FTC to point out many examples of how our industry works together to build and maintain trust in email with consumers.
We continue to have an opportunity as service providers and industry associations, to lead our industry by setting and adopting realistic best practices guidelines that businesses can implement. The email and advertising industries are graced with numerous agencies and associations doing just that, including the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), the Direct Marketing Association, the Email Experience Council, the Email Sender and Provider Coalition, Network Advertising Initiative and the Internet Advertising Bureau, to name a few. Each of these existing industry associations have produced best practice guidance that has resonated with us and helped us manage our businesses properly. The latest effort comes from the Online Trust Alliance (OTA) who has just released a timely draft of Online Trust Principles for public comment.
The thing about any set of principles, and these from the OTA are no exception …
Categories: Commentary View Comments
Apr
9
Will Self Regulation of Email Continue?
Chief Privacy Officer
While it seems that every new administration wants to put their stamp on things, it’s still not entirely clear what the Obama team, including new Federal Trade Commission Chief Jon Leibowitz, wishes to do in the realm of email and digital marketing. The administration has already called for increased efforts on effective self-regulation. If industry can’t meet the call, what new regulations might be expected from Congress in the coming years? To find out, I will be helping guide a frank conversation with the FTC staff along with DMA government affairs vice president Jerry Cerasale in a webinar on April 29.
We will cover …
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