EmailKarma.net

Q&A: Permission and the Electronic Commerce Protection Act

2009-11-26T14:34:00.000-05:00

I received a great question about the Electronic Commerce Protection Act (Bill C-27) currently working it's way through the Canadian Parliament.

Q:
What does this mean for US companies which have Canadians on their list? It looks like the ECPA (pronounced Eck-Pa) has a slightly more rigid permission rule than CAN SPAM (implied consent is not exactly opt out). So if I have Canadians on my file, and don’t have ZIP or Country, will I have to re-permission or collect more data (e.g.: Country) to be in compliance?

A:
Like most laws they are bound geography by the boarders of the country that created them. ECPA is filling a void in Canada that is currently allowing people to hide from prosecution in countries that do have existing spam laws, and enabling Canada to identify and target domestic spam operators. However this doesn't mean you can have free reign over the data to do as you wish if your operating in or selling to Canadians.

High level notes on the ECPA

Messages must include the following information:

1 - Identify the person/company sending the message
2 - Provide contact information (I believe your postal address will suffice - also a CAN-SPAM requirement)
3 - Provide a functional unsubscribe method.

Two levels of consent for electronic messages:

1 - Implied Consent - Time limit of 24 Months, providing ample time to gain express consent. Covers; memberships, donations, volunteering, purchases, contracts, existing business relationships, etc...
2 - Express Consent - No expiration (unless opt-out is used) - covers all types of transactions.

NOTE: It is important to recognize that ECPA is not entirely opt-in: in circumstances where the law allows consent to be implied, this is effectively a form of 'opt-out' consent. As such, ECPA can be described as a mix between opt-in and opt-out.

Opt-out Methods:

1 - Should be allowed via the same method the original communication was sent (i.e. Email unsub for Email messages, SMS unsub for SMS messages etc...)
2 - and, A web site must be included as an alternative option.

NOTE: Opt-outs must function for a minimum 60 days after the message was sent, and be processed as fast as possible and no later then 10 business days.

ECPA does cover any electronic message sent to Canadians or routed through Canada, so it is my understanding that people initiating messages from the US and other international mailers will need to be aware of the permission issues and work towards compliance. Remember this is for Electronic messaging which includes; Social Networks, IM, SMS, and of course email... and likely other forms of electronic communication.

More to come as we see continued progression via parliament.

Twas the month before Christmas | a poem

2009-11-25T09:51:00.005-05:00

My good buddy Rick Buck sent this over yesterday and it was so funny I had to share (with permission of course).

‘Twas the month before Christmas, when all through the land,
marketers were scheming to hit year-end plans.

Their e-mails were designed in great detail and care,
in hopes that all of their customers soon would be there.

Mail the entire list. Mail them all!
Mail away! Mail away! Mail away all!"

The executives were nestled all snug in their beds,
with visions of Q4 revenue dancing in their heads.

When back in the office arose such a clatter,
that delivery support ran to see what was the matter?

Away to their reporting tools they flew like a flash,
investigating each client’s mailing to look for the trash.

The data before them on the newly sent mail
gave all indications of why they did fail.

When what to their wondering eyes should appear,
but a slew of bounce codes that no one would endear.

Unknown User! Inactive Account! Mailbox Doesn’t Exist!
Blocks from the ISPs were hard to resist.

If only they’d listened and segmented their data.
Their mailing would have been delivered, staying off of the ISP’s radar.

Relevance, hygiene, permission and more,
ultimately gets the campaign safely out the door.

Reach out to your clients now and give them a shout.
Make sure they understand what this is all about.

Eliminate unknown users, non-responders, and hard bounces alike,
and watch delivery and response rates soar and spike.

It is important to take heed of this trustworthy advice,
because the ISPs know if you’re naughty or nice.

During this important mailing season we must get it right.
Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good-night!

Karmasphere Reputation Service is shutting down

2009-11-02T14:36:00.003-05:00

I received this note today from the team behind the Karmasphere Project, a community based DIY Reputation service, stating that the service will be shutting it's doors in a couple of weeks.

Hello,

As a registered user of Karmasphere Reputation Services, we wanted to let you know that we are discontinuing the service, effective November 16, 2009. If you are using the services through DNS, BQuery or email plugins, please make plans to adjust your configurations ideally prior to November 9 and no later than November 16, 2009.

On that final date, we will disable the reputation servers so that you can no longer query them. Anybody who still has not removed Karmasphere's reputation service from their mail configuration when this happens may find that their mail servers appear to slow down while they wait for their queries to Karmasphere to time out.

You may be thinking "why are they doing this?". The answer is that we are moving the business in a different direction. We have applied the experience gained in manipulating and analysing large data sets in reputation services into developing software that makes it easier to use Hadoop.

This change in focus means that we no longer have the time nor resources to give the reputation service the attention it deserves. Rather than letting the service slowly decay, we are ending them.

This end of service will proceed in the following stages.

Stage 1: To November 9, 2009
Our services will continue as they have for the past 4 years.
This gives you a chance to remove karmasphere's feeds and feedsets from your mail server configurations.

Stage 2: November 9 - November 16, 2009
Our servers will continue to respond but our feedsets will whitelist everything.

Stage 3: November 16, 2009
The reputation servers will be turned off.

Thank you for using our services.

The Karmasphere Team.

Good luck to the Karmasphere Team with your new projects.

Bill C-27 Status and Breakdown - Part 1

2009-10-30T12:56:00.010-04:00

Before I start a special thanks to Industry Canada for providing a behind the scenes look at Bill C-27 and for educating me on the following.

Background on C-27:

In 2004 Industry Canada formed the Federal Anti-Spam Task Force (aka. FAST-F) to bring together all of the major industry players that would be effected by any potential legislation. This group was formed of several Large ISPs and Telcos, Marketing Associations, anti-spam organizations, larger corporations and Email Services Providers. This group worked together and published the document; Stopping Spam (PDF). I suggest everyone read it if they haven't already.

In the Fall of 2008, Prime Minister Harper announced the intentions of the Conservative party that would table anti-spam legislation as part of their Protecting Consumers platform. This Bill was put forth in first reading in Early 2009. What are the Conservatives promising:

Increased civil penalties for false and misleading advertising, criminal convictions, tougher fines and potentially prison terms.
Legislation to reduce Internet spam and to prohibit practices such as identity theft, the spreading of viruses, “phishing” and other forms of fraud.
Increased fines for dangerous, deceptive and destructive email, and for attempts to steal personal information.
Establishing a coordinating body to ensure the legislation is effectively enforced and to respond to consumers complaints.

Current Status of Bill C-27:

The original bill was presented to the House of Commons in April, was debated and passed to the Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. After several months of interviews and hearing testimony (including my testimony) the changes and amendments were ratified and will now be presented back to the house for final vote (see amendments) - which will then initiate another round of reviews by the Canadian Senate.

Upcoming challenges:

Bill C-27 is not the only Anti-Spam bill currently in play within the Government of Canada. In 2008 the Canadian Senate put forth Senate Bill S-220 (aka. the Goldstein Bill) to deal with Spam. Having reviewed both of these bills I believe that C-27 encompass the intentions of, and surpasses S-220 with more comprehensive rules and regulations.

Stay tuned for more on this topic.

C-27 the Electronic Commerce Protection Act

2009-10-27T09:47:00.003-04:00

Last night was very exciting for a number of us here in Canada. The Canadian governments Standing Committee on Industry, Science & Technology finalized the Draft for Bill C-27 (The Anti-Spam Bill) and it will now be delivered to the House of Commons for a final all party vote.

The final draft will be available early next week and the House (more on Canadian Parliament) should vote shorty thereafter. Once the House has approved this bill it will be reviewed and finalized by the Canadian Senate.

Stay upto date on the process of this bill by following EmailKarma, and CAUCE on Twitter. I will be posting a full update once the final draft is made available from the Government's web site.

Alert - Postini Issues

2009-10-13T17:19:00.008-04:00

With all the industry buzz about issues with Postini through twitter today, there is finally legitimate confirmation about the messaging management tools not working effectively, as reported by ComputerWorld By Sharon Gaudin - October 13, 2009 04:07 PM ET:

Postini Trouble Stymies U.S. E-mail Users

The article also mentions, that further details can be reached at Google's Postini Login Support:

Postini Login Support

Twitter upgrades Spam fighting services

2009-10-13T16:58:00.004-04:00

Today Twitter announced upgrades to their spam fighting services - you will now see the text "report [username] for spam" under the actions you can take when viewing a users account.

This is a new method for contacting the Spam team at twitter... Previously you would have to follow the @spam account (they would follow back) and you could send them a direct message in the format "d spam @username". This would trigger an investigation by the Twitter team. This feature also adds the Block user function and will prevent the account from following or replying to you in the future.

See what Twitter considers to be abusive and worthy of a "report spam" click.

What is spam?

Posting harmful links (including links to phishing or malware sites)
Abusing the @reply function to post unwanted messages to users
Creating lots of accounts or using automated tools to create multiple accounts
Spamming trending topics to try to grab attention
Repeatedly posting duplicate updates
Posting links with unrelated tweets
Aggressive following behavior (for instance, mass following and un-following in order to gain attention)

Great upgrade for Twitter, now lets hope it's not as redily abused as the "Report spam" button at many ISPs.

* Image thanks to Twitter

Email Marketer's Club Webinar slides

2009-10-07T16:26:00.003-04:00

Yesterday marks the kick off of the Email Marketer's Club Webinar series with a presentation titled "Getting The Most Out Of Your Holiday Email Campaigns". Hosted by Tamara Gielen and Andrew Kordek.

Great presentation here, with lots of helpful tips and information.

Getting The Most Out Of Your Holiday Email Campaigns

View more presentations from Tamara Gielen.

Stay tuned for details on the Upcoming November 18th Webinar with DJ Waldow. Hope to see you at the next session.

Announcing the Spamhaus CSS

2009-10-02T10:16:00.000-04:00

Today on the Spamhaus Blog an Announcement appeared discussing a new classification to the SBL - Spamhaus CSS (Composite Snow-Shoe). This is a new classification that will be making it easier to identify and combat an old yet rapidly growing problem - the Snowshoe Spammer.

Don't know what Snowshoe spamming is? Here is the Spamhaus description: Like a snowshoe spreads the load of a traveler across a wide area of snow, snowshoe spamming uses many frequently-changing IP addresses, domains and aliases to spread out the spam load in order to dilute recipient reputation metrics and evade filters.

This looks like it will be a quick listing type service, with volunteer research tying the source back to known spam organizations (ROKSO), tied to an automated removal process, after a number of days, built in to help identify these rapidly moving targets of spam.

Are you already using the SBL/ZEN lists then you should review how your rules are flagging the different types of listings. CSS listings will return a different code during the DNS lookup on an IP in this case, 127.0.0.3 will be shown instead of the traditional SBL record of 127.0.0.2. This return code change will allow you to adjust the way your treating listed IPs, maybe for the CSS list you want to Gray list the mail and force the sender to return at a later time, or maybe you will adjust your spam scoring differently (not as high or higher?) and on the SBL/Zen lists you want to outright reject the mail... The choice is yours but now you have more choices and choices are good ;)

* image thanks to the Spamhaus Project

Using the tools available to your advantage (Facebook)

2009-09-18T10:59:00.003-04:00

Part two of Using the tools available to your advantage

So I have been experimenting with a number of different out lets for interacting with the Email Marketing Community and I'm had some great success with twitter and some mediocre success with some of the other channels I've been playing in. Ad serving for one - but that is a different post - and Facebook.

For Facebook I've been playing with two different application this first a Fan Page and the second a Blog Network. both have 20-25 members and very low engagement rates even though I frequently update them with the posts made right here.

So I started to look elsewhere for a success story on Facebook and last night I was presented with it completely by chance. Some of you may have seen my list of Blogs (bottom of right column) that I maintain or write at other then this one... and last night I was out an an event for one of them where I got to talking with the Marketing and PR team of the event organizers (no names as I didn't ask permission to discuss the details here and have had to pieced together much of the campaign based on my own observations).

Challenge:
Get more members to join their Facebook Fan Page - Starting number ~100 Fans. The team began thinking about how to further engage an already already active community - Active in our Forums, on Twitter, on Facebook (but not fans), and in community sites - within a new dedicated channel.

Methods:
The ultimate responsibility fell to the community managers for this organization where they took the lead in creating a contest focused on engaging the target audience - pick something people are passionate about and figure out how to catch their interests in this case - post your picture while engaging with our product.

They focused on a number of different areas...

RT @InitialUser:

The Results:

on each

Thinking about engaging your users on Facebook but not sure how - well I hope this story gives you some good ideas on how to go about growing your community.

Remember most social networks are free to use, and require only that you be creative and invest the time and attention being evolved with your virtual neighbors. Also i'd add that once you have a community people will use it as a place to vent problems and concerns over your products and services - you have to be ready for this and prepared to deal with these people. Support and empower your community managers to help turn each issue into a win-win success story for the customer and your organization.

Have an opinion? Share it with me by commenting here or sending me a tweet @emailkarma

IAPP Canada KnowledgeNet Meeting: Ottawa, Ontario

2009-09-14T15:14:00.005-04:00

This sounds like a great event and as an ambassador for IAPP Canada, I would like to extend this invitation to you to attend the next KnowledgeNet meeting.

What are KnowledgeNets?

KnowledgeNets are free educational workshops for the data protection and privacy community. Each meeting features a presentation by an expert on a timely information privacy topic and includes a networking breakfast or lunch. Why the invitation, I thought these were free?

RSVP

What's the topic?

Bio

Location:

World Exchange Plaza

RSVP is REQUIRED by Thursday, October 1, 2009. Seating is limited.

For more information about IAPP Canada or KnowledgeNets, please visit www.privacyassociation.org/canada.

KnowledgeNets are sponsored by Ernst & Young. Financial support for this meeting is also provided by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Using the tools available to your advantage (Twitter)

2009-09-02T16:36:00.011-04:00

I have been thinking about this a lot and I'm starting to see it more and more small business owners focusing their attention online where big businesses are falling behind. The main reason I see this is the affordability - where else can you virtually advertise your products and services for next to nothing. Small businesses are agile and quick, they are not usually tied down by red tape and the need to review every public statement before they are made.

Consider the services that you have at your finger tips now; Social Media, Email, Ad serving, SEO - online these tools cost pennies on the dollar compared to their other media counterparts. This is where the agile and savvy small business owner will be able to level the playing field with their largest counterparts.

Lets start with Twitter:

Find local influencer's in your area (ex: Toronto Elite users)
Search and follow those that appear to be interested in your product/service - Do not just follow everyone on the list. Be selective, be targeted and look for the right audience.
Engage these users in a dialog - read their tweets have conversations with them - doing this will increase the likely hood of them following you back. A good personality is also very helpful
Don't just advertise - no one wants to hear that all day, be yourself - Be the public face instead of the sales person, but don't sell yourself short, you can soft sell your company (but i'd say no more then 1 in 10 tweets should be a promotion for your brand - others might say 1 in 20 - test and find your limits)
Be persistent - you won't have thousands of followers over night (oh yeah stay away from those services too) but providing insightful and useful information, being part of the conversation and they will come - The saying truly fits this time "If you build it they will come".
Expect to get feedback - in fact go looking for it (search example) via twitter search. Tip: Twitter lets you subscribe to your search results via RSS so your always updated.

Okay so you have setup with Twitter account, you have followed a number of interested people and now you want to start integrating Social Networks into your email.

My advice start simple, many marketers that are diving into the social scene are starting simple - this is good. Work with your email list and let your subscribers know where you can be found - be it Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or [Insert Network Here]. Provide Subscribers to share the Web version of your email (you know where you usually say "View the Web Version" - add the option to "Share the web Version"). This will give you a chance to grow your member base and get a good start with finding already connected friends, fans and followers.

For more advanced uses of these Social network sharing services I'd recommend you subscribe to the Social Media newsletter from smartbrief.com - they have individual stories that you can share with a click of a button to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and email.

Remember most social networks are free - yeah you heard me FREE - to use, and require only that you invest the time and attention being evolved with your virtual neighbors.

Have an opinion? Share it with me by commenting here or sending me a tweet @emailkarma

AOL Report Card Retired

2009-08-24T16:49:00.007-04:00

Over on the AOL Postmaster Blog Christine posted this afternoon that AOL will no longer be sending report cards to people enrolled in the AOL FeedBack Loop. These were the email's titled "AOL email concerns for EXAMPLE.com" that AOL would send if your email traffic exceeded an inbox complaint rate of 0.30%.

Quote from the AOL postmaster Blog:

Just a quick announcement to let you know that we are no longer sending report cards. If you have a complaint feedback loop, make sure you are monitoring your spam complaints and not relying on the report card to alert you to complaint issues. If you don't have a feedback loop, you can apply for one here.

Hat Tip: Spamtacular

Two DNSBL Updates

2009-08-18T15:52:00.005-04:00

Al Iverson over at DNSBL.com posted a couple of timely updates regarding the long dead TQMCUBE RBL and the more reciently defunct open-whois RBL.

Long Story short the TQMCUBE administrators made some DNS changes that now point their website to a new DNSBL called "invaluement". Invaluement has made the following PSA regarding old listings in the TQMCUBE block list:

NOTICE: Another DNSBL called TQMCube was discontinued in 2007. Recently, on a purely complimentary basis, they started sending their web traffic to this web site. (We appreciate the favor, and hope that visitors looking for TQMCube will be happy to learn about the invaluement DNSBL.) Please note that there is no business relationship between TQMCube and invaluement. TQMCube‘s (discontinued) data and the invaluement DNSBL data are completely separate and independent.

For more info see the full notice from Invaluement.

Issues with the Open-Whois RBL are a little more timely and urgent - as this RBL is turned on by default in the SpamAssassin basic install and may cause you some minor headaches. Al writes:

As of July 18, 2009, it appears that a squatter has taken over the open-whois.org domain name. At first, the new owner of the domain used a "wildcard" DNS record, resulting in the return of a positive response for any DNS query. The net effect is that every domain checked against this blacklist results in a DNS response that makes your spam filter think that the domain is blacklisted, usually incorrectly so.

Since the issue was first observed, the squatter must have noticed all of this DNS traffic coming from SpamAssassin users and decided that the traffic was undesirable, so they've modified the domain in whois so that its name servers point at obviously invalid IP addresses.

For the full summary and instructions for removing this RBL from your local SpamAssassin installation please see Status of bl.open-whois.org: DEAD.

ThinData Welcomes Scott Jamieson as General Manager

2009-08-12T16:38:00.002-04:00

Originally posted in ThinData Email Strategies.

ThinData, a Transcontinental Company, is pleased to announce that Scott Jamieson has joined its ranks as the new General Manager - reporting directly to the President, Chris Carder. Prior to joining ThinData, Mr. Jamieson held executive roles with a number of leading North American email service providers. Most recently, he served as the Managing Director of SJR Digital where he developed business and email strategies for leading brands across several complex industries, including: Media, Consumer Packaged Goods, Software, Automotive and Financial Services.

ThinData's President, Chris Carder, states: "Our success and exponential growth has been built on the ability to anticipate and fulfill our clients' needs with innovation and efficiency. By ensuring that our strategies and processes are effectively aligned, Scott will play a vital role in building on that track record and helping us to achieve our full growth potential."

I'm personally excited about this as Scott has great experience, lots of background and has always been a pleasure to work with in the past. Congrats Scott and welcome aboard.

Hotmail now with OtherInbox

2009-08-11T15:41:00.002-04:00

OtherInbox continues to grow it external mailbox support for free webmail clients announcing the addition of Windows Live Hotmail to the list. Bringing Hotmail in as the latest addition to already popular Yahoo mail and Gmail integrations - Gmail Apps works as well.

Where Gmail and Yahoo function within IMAP space allowing the messages to exist in both OIB and their respective accounts at the same time. Integration with Hotmail will function over POP giving you the option to either leave messages in Hotmail's inbox or delete them after downloading them into the OIB system.

From the image above it also appears that OIB is looking at AOL integration and an option to included any other service you can POP/IMAP your email from, opening the potential for a one stop shop for all your email management needs.

I have yet to integrate any external accounts with OIB, but if you have done it I'd be curious to know the results.

* Image thanks to OIB

MySpace Mail gets accredation

2009-08-04T14:59:00.004-04:00

Yesterday (was a Holiday so I'm just seeing this now) both Return Path and GoodMail announced certification partnerships with MySpace Mail.

Here is what Return Path has to say:

"Return Path is partnering with MySpace to ensure that the new social networking email service upholds the same high standard as ISPs. MySpace will also be implementing Return Path Certification to make sure that MySpace members get the email they request. That means that our Certification members will receive VIP access into the inboxes of millions of MySpace users in addition to the largest and most respected whitelist program in the email universe. Additionally, MySpace will contribute data to our Return Path Reputation Network, the cooperative database that powers our Sender Score."

And now from Goodmail:

“MySpace is doing email right by using CertifiedEmail from the very start, and it’s exciting to be an integral part of the product,” said Goodmail Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Peter C. Horan. “Goodmail technology assures the safe delivery of legitimate messages into MySpace mailboxes.”

“MySpace Mail empowers our users to connect with people and content outside MySpace in a new way,” said Rajit Marwah, director of product management for MySpace Mail. “We want to ensure users have the best experience when receiving rich messages from accredited senders, and Goodmail is helping to deliver that.”

I'm not seeing Myspace mail active in my account yet - but I will continue to pass along details on this as I receive them.

Images On At Gmail - For Some

2009-07-21T11:20:00.005-04:00

In a recient post by the Gmail team that announced a new option for users. Something that should make established contacts very happy. IMAGES ON for CONTACTS... That is right Gmail will be enabling images for users that have sent at least two emails to the sender of the inbound email, and only if your authenticating. It almost makes you want to remove that DONOTREPLY@ option from your emails and ask for customer feedback via email.

As a safety option, Gmail also provides the option to disable images from your contacts (think about the friends that send you those NSFW forwards - yeah you know who you are) so your not auto loading images from that specific individual - to do so (this works for anyone you have previously allowed all images from too) , click "Don't display from now on" under the "Show details" link of an email from them with images. or to make this a global setting, select "Ask before displaying external content" under "External content" on the general Settings tab.

Gmail uses SPF and DKIM to authenticate inbound emails - so if your not doing this now I'd recomend you get working on these technologies.

Source: Now displaying images in messages from your contacts

MAAWG Says One Third Of Users Reply To Spam

2009-07-15T15:20:00.006-04:00

The results of an eight hundred person survey conducted in December of 2008, by MAAWG (Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group), shows that one third of consumers admitted to responding to a message they suspected might be spam. Add this to the news that 10 Canadian a month fall for Phishing email and you have some serious things to worry about.

However it's not all bad news, most of the people surveyed admitted to havening anti-virus software installed and that 1/3 state that their computers have never been infected with a virus, and over 80% of the respondents suggest that their PC's are safe from virus and bot infections. But is this a false confidence in Virus solutions - I mean no one's perfect right - Day 0 viruses and exploits still exist last I checked (most will never see it coming).

More than half of the respondents said they never click on suspected spam, and almost 80% of people are using spam filters to protect their inbox's. The interesting fact here for marketer's it that 25% of users are commonly using a separate more disposable email address from their primary account to protect themselves from potential spam sources. More surprising is the over 60% of users would allow their ISP to scan and remove malware from their PC's, however I'd be wary of giving that kind of control to a third party - a notification system with an FAQ on the issues would be more my speed.

What have you done recently to earn subscribers trust and get past the email bouncers?

View the full report titled: "Of Course, I Never Reply to Spam – Except Sometimes" (Suggestion: right click on the link and "save as..." due to the file size)

Gmail Boost Phishing Protection

2009-07-13T14:15:00.005-04:00

Bearly a week out of Beta and Gmail is already announcing new Lab features that enhance their current anti-phishing protection for users. After enabling this feature eBay and PayPal email messages (more financial services will likely follow) will display an icon of trust showing these messages are truly from the proper financial institutions. This is a visual tool that will make it that much easier for people to trust email messages being received from their financial institutions. Shown below are samples of what you can expect once you enable this Lab feature:

Notice the keys next to the display name showing these messages are being classified as "Super-trustworthy" in the Gmail interface. However do not confuse these key icons with the Yahoo Domain Key signed message icon as they do not necessarily mean the same thing (although the Gmail authentication tool checks for DKIM signatures as part of it's trust criteria).

Kudos's to the Gmail Security and abuse team for continuing to build these tools designed to help protect their users, however I would like to suggest this become an "enabled by default" feature for all users.

To enable the "Authentication icon for verified senders" feature login to your Gmail or Google Apps account and click on the "Settings" tab (top right) and then Labs from the options - some people may have a a little green beaker they can click on which is a labs shortcut. Once your there scroll down tht page until you see the "Authentication icon for verified senders" and select enable - then click "Save Changes" button and your set.

While we are talking Labs... What's your favorite Lab feature offered currently by Gmail? I'd have to say Quick Links is my current front runner for most useful lad extension.

Photo credit: Gmail Blog

Are You A Stupid Marketer?

2009-07-08T17:00:00.002-04:00

Kevin Nalts seems to think he is, and he's not afraid to talk about it, but at least he is enlightened enough to know the difference.

I really like the suggestion around book covers ;)

C-27 Transcripts

2009-06-30T11:02:00.003-04:00

The transcripts from my visit to Parliament Hill concerning Bill C-27, the Electronic Commerce protection act, is now available.

40th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION
Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Full transcripts here

Witnesses include:
Professor Michael Geist (Canada Research Chair, Internet and E-commerce Law, University of Ottawa, As an Individual)
Mr. Dennis Dayman (Secretary Treasurer, CAUCE North America, Inc.)
Mr. Matthew Vernhout (Director-at-large, CAUCE North America, Inc.)

Possible SORBS Closure in July

2009-06-22T09:24:00.005-04:00

Via a number of discussion groups and email lists, I received the following bulletin from Michelle Sullivan, founder of the Blacklist SORBS, regarding the upcoming closure of this service.

SORBS is currently looking at a sale of the services, hardware and code base - and according to their website "A number of offers have already been made, we are evaluating each on their own merits".

Posted in full blow with permission:

All,

Please feel free to forward this message to any other location/mailing list.

It comes with great sadness that I have to announce the imminent closure of SORBS. The University of Queensland have decided not to honor their agreement with myself and SORBS and terminate the hosting contract.

I have been involved with institutions such as Griffith University trying to arrange alternative hosting for SORBS, but as of 12 noon, 22nd June 2009 no hosting has been acquired and therefore I have been forced in to this announcement. SORBS is officially "For Sale" should anyone wish to purchase it as a going concern, but failing that and failing to find alternative hosting for a 42RU rack in the Brisbane area of Queensland Australia SORBS will be shutting down permanently in 28 days, on 20th July 2009 at 12 noon.

This announcement will be replicated on the main SORBS website at the earliest opportunity.

For any hosting suggestions/provision, please be aware that the 42RU space is a requirement at the moment, and the service cannot be made into a smaller rackspace without a lot of new hardware, virtual hosting is just not possible. The SORBS service services over 30 billion DNS queries per day, and has a number of database servers with fast disk to cope with the requirements.

Thank you for all your support over the years,

Michelle Sullivan

Dutch ban all spam e-mails

2009-06-19T13:02:00.004-04:00

Radio Nederland Wereldomroep (Radio Netherlands World) is reporting that the Current Dutch Anti-spam legislation, focusing on Unsolicited Emails to individuals is being updated to also include emails sent to corporations.

Full report:
The economic affairs ministry says all spam e-mails will be against the law in the Netherlands from October. It was already illegal to send spam e-mails to private individuals but the ban will be extended to cover companies as well.

Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Frank Heemskerk says the measure is not just aimed at nuisance e-mails but also against crime. Spam e-mails can be used to obtain information contained in computers. Under the new measures, Dutch companies which send spam e-mails will face fines of up to 450,000 euros.

Hat tip: @aliverson via Twitter

Presentation to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science & Technology

2009-06-15T16:41:00.004-04:00

Originally published on CAUCE.org.

On June 11, 2009 Dennis Dayman and I set an afternoon with the Canadian Government's Standing Committee on Industry, Science & Technology to stand witness for the Electronic Commerce Protect Act in two capacities. First we acted as representives for CAUCE NA - an all volunteer organization representing the consumer and end user - and secondly as representatives of the legitimate email marketing community. Below you will find our opening statements to the Committee (and if you have two hours to listen here is the link to the audio recording of the entire session - transcripts to follow).

Mes dames et messieurs je m’appelle Dennis Dayman. I am the Secretary-treasurer of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, CAUCE, a group representing computer-users in Canada, and the rest of North America. CAUCE thanks you for the opportunity to speak to Bill C-27, The Electronic Commerce Protection Act.

As you can probably tell from my accent, je ne suis pas Canadien, je
suis un Americain, et je regrette que je ne parle pas français.

So why is an American here today addressing this esteemed committee?
Well, reflecting the way in that spam is a pan-global problem, some
years ago, CAUCE Canada merged with their American counterparts to
better serve our constituents. Spam respects no borders, and to best
represent computer users on both sides of our mutual border, we decided
to mount a coherent CAN-AM front against the blight of Spam 2.0

You heard me correctly ladies and gentlemen. CAUCE, once the exclusive domain of computer geek anti-spammers has openly embraced the marketing community for a decade now, and counts among its members and executives many individuals and companies who have an enlightened view as to why an anti-spam law works in all our favour.

My colleague Matthew Vernhout and I both work for large international ‘email service providers’, (myself for Eloqua, and Matthew at ThinData Canada’s largest ESP, both of these companies were founded and continue to operate in Toronto. Our companies provide sending infrastructure for marketing email, sending on behalf of such companies as Fidelity, Air Canada, American Express, and literally hundreds of small and medium-sized companies and we are very much in favour of this law.

Continue reading: "Presentation to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science & Technology / Comité permanent de l'industrie, des sciences et de la technologie (INDU)"