Here is a GDPR country contacts list, in other words a list of GDPR countries and to whom questions or complaints involving GDPR should be directed for each country. This GDPR countries list is based on information compiled directly from the European Data Protection Board (EDPB).
Many people don't realize that when Brexit happened the United Kingdom ("UK") adopted their own version of GDPR, often referred to as the UK GDPR. When it comes to email marketing in the UK, the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has made fairly explicitly clear that under the UK GDPR there are only two situations in which you can send someone email marketing: you must either have their prior consent, or they must be an existing customer (this is the so-called "soft opt-in").
Google has started sending notices of deactivating inactive Gmail addresses (actually they are going to deactivate dormant Google accounts, which includes Gmail accounts); and Yahoo posted a notice about deleting inactive mailboxes earlier this year. And if you don't pay attention to this it can, and likely will, hurt your deliverability.
By now you may have heard that Validity is going to start charging for access to their FBL, which they call the Universal FBL because they have made it the single point of access to the FBLs of so many ISPs. Here are all the details, including how much it will cost you.
Yesterday afternoon (8/24/23) a Federal court judge handed the Republican National Committee its head on a platter. As you may recall the RNC had sued Google, claiming that Google's spam filtering algorithm was intentionally anti-Republican. Google then countered by offering a pilot program to any political campaign that would adhere to Google's best practices for email - a spam-filter offramp, if you will - in other words they would not even have to have their email run through certain spam filters.
The email industry is abuzz today with the news that Validity (nee Return Path) is about to start charging for access to the feedback loops (FBLs) which they have carefully cultivated and curated for years. This week their customers received one of two letters indicating that Validity was going to start charging for access to their Universal Feedback Loop.
Think the FTC and DOJ won't come after you if you violate CAN-SPAM? Think again. Experian's ConsumerInfo.com just got a rude awakening: you actually do have to comply with CAN-SPAM, or the FTC and DOJ will come after you - and win.
You may have heard of Charlie Javice and her now-defunct company Frank, as they have been in the news a lot lately. But in case you haven't heard of Charlie Javice, she, through her company Frank, it is alleged, conspired to fleece J.P. Morgan Chase (JPMC) out of millions of dollars by perpetrating a fraud whereby they fabricated a user list of millions of people, including email addresses, and then used that to entice JPMC to acquire them. Here's how they did it, what happened next, and how they were brought down and are now facing criminal charges.
New data privacy laws in Tennessee, Indiana, Montana, and Iowa put these states on par with Connecticut, Colorado, Virginia, Utah and Texas; all of them have new data privacy laws which, among other things, require affirmative opt-in and consent before you can use someone's email address, such as adding it to a mailing list or using it for targeted advertising. It's important to understand that this doesn't just apply to businesses which are headquartered in those states; in at least some of these states their law also applies to anyone doing business with someone in their state.
Texas has passed their HB 4, joining a growing list of states which have passed their own data privacy laws, laws which impact email and email marketing, among other things. The new Texas law goes into effect on July 1, 2024, and affects any business which either is in Texas, or which does business with individuals who reside within Texas. It is also very strict on email address collection, email use, and email marketing, and among other things it requires consent before you do nearly anything non-transactional with someone's email address. We break it down for you here.
