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August 1, 2005
FTC: Top e-tailers honoring opt-outs
Major online retailers are getting better at handling unsubscribe requests, according to a new study by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC recently created three new email accounts and signed up each account to receive spam from 100 "top e-tailers."
According to the FTC, "Eighty nine percent of the e-tailers honored all three of the opt-out requests made by FTC staff and 93 percent complied with opt-out requests for at least some accounts."
That's an improvement over an earlier study by the FTC. In 2002, the agency tested how well 200 online firms handled opt-out requests. The result: some 77 companies received warning letters.
Credit the improvement in part to the 2004 CAN-SPAM Act, which requires e-mail marketers to honor requests to be removed from future mailings. (The FTC's instructions on how to handle opt-out systems are here.)
It would certainly be interesting to know which online shops failed the latest test. The FTC's press release says a copy of the full report is available online, but I couldn't see it at FTC.gov.
Of course, many spammers don't give a hoot about CAN-SPAM or honoring opt-out requests. As a result, you still never know what's going to happen if you try to unsubscribe from most junk email.
Posted by brian at August 1, 2005 10:05 PM
Comments
Looks like the report is here:
http://ftc.gov/reports/optout05/050801optoutetailersrpt.pdf
but does not list the sites that failed.
Posted by: Miles Libbey at August 4, 2005 11:05 AM
C'mon, we just want to read about these crazy ass spammers!
Posted by: yratnemucod at August 4, 2005 3:26 PM
I guess now someone will have to file a request under the Freedom of Information Act just to find out which of the "top e-tailers" refused to honor opt-outs.
Posted by: spam killer at August 6, 2005 9:24 AM
