My friend and colleague Nick Usborne has the gift for a "turn of phrase." He used the words white color spam in his blog a few days ago. Next thing he knows, Seth Godin mentioned it in his blog. Then came a call from The New York Times. And this article, Big Companies Add to Spam by Saul Hansell which quotes Nick. You know what he's talking about. When you register on the Palm site, for example, using an email address you don't use for anything else. Subsequently you begin receiving emails you haven't asked for from other big name companies - to that particular address. These mainstream companies are (discreetly, it seems) trading your email address with one another. Or perhaps there was a box you forgot to uncheck, in miniscule type, that said they might "tell you about related products or services." This is a scam. And it's definitely a form of spam.

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David Locke said on October 30, 2003 at 01:33 PM

The companies involved might not even be aware of the exchanges if they work through a third-party provider.

It pays to look at the privacy policy, but it seems too much to ask that we have to navigate around the site to find out if it’s safe before diving in.

GenuineGenius said on October 30, 2003 at 04:52 PM

Meanwhile, companies trying to send out legitimate news to subscribers are blocked by SPAM filters.

I feel like the advantages to e-mail marketing are dwindling. Soon, no businesses will accept messages in bulk and it’s hard to push out messages to people when they don’t visit your site regularly… yet.

People pay for this news! This should be interesting.

It’s like the Do Not Call Registry. Except that you don’t know your message is blocked in many cases, unless it starts to happen on your own mail server. 

Another fad? Shorter-lived than telemarketing?

GenuineGenius said on October 30, 2003 at 04:52 PM

Meanwhile, companies trying to send out legitimate news to subscribers are blocked by SPAM filters.

I feel like the advantages to e-mail marketing are dwindling. Soon, no businesses will accept messages in bulk and it’s hard to push out messages to people when they don’t visit your site regularly… yet.

People pay for this news! This should be interesting.

It’s like the Do Not Call Registry. Except that you don’t know your message is blocked in many cases, unless it starts to happen on your own mail server. 

Another fad? Shorter-lived than telemarketing?

Deepak Mankar said on November 18, 2003 at 11:31 PM

I hope you don’t mind if I point out, Debbie, that Nick Usborne coined the phrase ‘white collar spam’ and not ‘white color spam’. My own experience shows that legit companies do abuse the ‘permission’ they have from me to spam me from time to time.

Romero Oscar said on December 11, 2003 at 01:14 AM

If you would be unloved and forgotten, be reasonable.

Bromberg Brian said on April 28, 2004 at 02:46 PM

Some nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.

Thacher Robertson said on June 2, 2004 at 05:59 PM

Truth is a kind and gentle lie.

——-


About This Blog

I’ve been writing about corporate and CEO blogging and business use of social media since 2003. I also use this blog as a whiteboard to work out my thinking on other subjects, such as Government 2.0 and Publishing 2.0.  I welcome your Comments if they are on topic. I delete them if inappropriate or spammy.




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