 NetCreations,
Inc. 47 Joralemon Street Brooklyn NY 11201 (718) 522 1531 (718) 237 2347 FAX info@netcreations.com http://www.netcreations.com April 11, 1997 Federal Trade Commission Re: Consumer Privacy 1997 Comment, P954807 To the Secretary: Here are my comments for the upcoming Consumer Privacy hearings in June: 2.10 What steps have individual commercial Web sites taken since June 1996 to address online privacy issues? How many have employed the procedures for notice and choice set forth in the Joint Statement on Online Notice and Opt-Out presented at the June 1996 Workshop by the Direct Marketing Association and the Interactive Services Association? Our company, NetCreations, Inc., is a Brooklyn, N.Y., Internet software and marketing firm that has not only conformed to the DMA's and ISA's notice and choice procedures but exceeded them. In February 1996, our company pioneered what we call opt-in email marketing because of our concerns about consumer privacy on the Internet and our desire to create a win-win solution for online marketers and consumers alike. I am the author and co-author of many books and articles about Internet business, including Exploring the World of Online Services (Sybex, 1993), The Internet Business Guide: Riding the Information Superhighway to Profit (SAMS, 1995), and A Pocket Tour of Internet Shopping (Sybex, 1995). I also write the Market Wise column for NetGuide magazine and publish a monthly electronic newsletter called Digital Direct Marketing that covers email marketing and "push" publishing. My partner, Ryan Scott, is an award-winning Web programmer whose PostMaster URL Announcement Service has gained a loyal following among leading ad agencies, p.r. firms, publishers, and corporations. Through our company's PostMaster Direct Response service, we now manage more than 3 million email addresses in over 3,000 topical categories from aerobics to scuba. Unlike companies that "spam" Internet users with unsolicited junk mail, we send email only to those people who have specifically asked to receive commercial announcements about specific topics. We also give our list members the opportunity to remove their email addresses from our mailing lists at any time and protect our members' privacy by never disclosing their email addresses to the marketers who rent our lists. Since the beginning of the year, we have worked with both the Direct Marketing Association and the Interactive Services Association to help them revise their opt out guidelines for this new and empowering medium. Based on our experience as Internet marketers, we believe that the only responsible way to conduct email marketing on the Internet is to let people opt in to receive commercial messages about specific topics, then send them information only about those topics in which they have expressed an interest. Not only does opt-in marketing respect Internet culture and consumers, it also results in higher response rates, making marketing campaigns more effective. While the DMA and the ISA are clearly well-intentioned, we believe that their opt out guidelines do not go far enough. Sadly, these guidelines have opened the door for "spammers" companies that blitz Internet users with unwanted junk mail to operate with impunity, causing Internet users and businesses to waste time and money deleting email messages and attempting to remove themselves from "spam" mailing lists. Here are the three principles that we would like to see adopted by the interactive and direct marketing industries: 1. "Opt in" -- We believe that the only responsible way to market to online users is to allow them to opt in to mailing lists that interest them. Marketers that send unsolicited email to millions of users are not only violating the "netiquette" of Internet culture but also causing consumers to pay more for online access. All the lists that we own, manage or broker are opt-in lists to which our members have voluntarily subscribed. We are also signing list management deals with other Web sites to gather more opt-in names. Our list management clients include Prodigy, Scholastic, Catalog Mart, Newslinx, Starting Point and other leading companies. 2. Privacy -- We believe that Internet consumers have a right to privacy. We protect our list members' privacy by never releasing their names, email addresses or any other demographic information to the marketers who rent our lists. Otherwise, an unscrupulous marketer might use our lists to "spam" Internet users with unsolicited junk mail. Instead, the marketer sends us his ad copy via email and we distribute it to the members of the list. 3. Access -- We believe that every Internet user should have the right to access his or her electronic records 24 hours a day, seven days a week. List members can visit our Web site at any time and check if they are subscribed to one or more of our lists and remove themselves if they wish. Provided that the industry agrees to abide by the three principles outlined above, we believe there will be no need for government regulation of commercial email on the Internet. Self-regulation will keep costs low and ensure that the small, entrepreneurial businesses that employ services like ours will continue to be able to use the Internet to boost sales and cut costs. Sincerely, Rosalind Resnick
April 11, 1997 Federal Trade Commission Re: Consumer Privacy 1997 Comment, P954807 To the Secretary: Here are my comments for the upcoming Consumer Privacy hearings in June: 2.17 What are the risks and benefits, to both consumers and commercial entities, of unsolicited commercial e-mail? What are consumers' perceptions, knowledge, and expectations regarding the risks and benefits of unsolicited commercial e-mail? In February, our company, NetCreations, Inc., posted a petition on our site asking Internet consumers and businesses to tell us what they thought of unsolicited email and opt-out email marketing. We got an earful - almost all of it opposed to the practice of "spamming," or blitzing Internet emailboxes with junk mail. Many letters complained of time and money wasted deleting unwanted messages and frustration in trying to get off bulk mailing lists. Other letters told of harm to the recipients' businesses and danger to their children. I have attached to my comments a sampling of the letters we received, reprinted with permission of their authors. All of them have given us permission to submit their comments to the FTC and are willing to be contacted for further information. The letters that we received address five major concerns: 1. Time wasted reading and deleting junk email messages "The answer to this is opt in, there is no doubt in my mind," Duane K. Kelly, proprietor of Kelly Freehold in Anderson, Ind., wrote to us. "This feeling has been further reinforced over time as I have seen as many as 200 spams sent to Kelly Freehold in a single day, often with a single sender sending as many as seven to eight of the same message within minutes of each other. The same message from different senders as well has become the norm. This is a true headache, and a total nuisance, not to mention the loss of man hours searching each to be sure the mail was not a customer seeking additional information or assistance." 2. Inability to get off junk email lists Terry Brainerd Chadwick, president of InfoQuest! Information Services in Portland, Ore., writes: "Many of the spams give me the 'option' of getting off their list by typing REMOVE in the subject line of the message. This is not an option; it's another spam. First, they fill up my mail box with their unsolicited ads that cost me time and money to read and then delete. And then they want me to spend more money telling them I don't want their advertisements." 3. High cost of downloading junk email "My business has been receiving an increasing number of costly andunsolicited advertisements via electronic mail," Chadwick says. "This is the same as charging me to receive an advertisement; it's like forcing me to accept a collect call whether I want it or not." Our own company, NetCreations, has been attacked by spammers who bounce email off our server and fake our headers to make their messages look like they are coming from us. Not only are these companies damaging our good name on the Net, but, in our view, they are also trespassing on our property and stealing our bandwidth. 4. Dubious products and services being marketed "Overall, the opt-out mailing lists on the Internet have been a great favorite of scam artists and the occasional pornographer or fly-by-night vendor," writes Netsurfer Eric M. Kidd. "Opt-in mailing lists and web advertising have been much more popular with serious, established companies. In the eyes of the consumer, it has so far proven safe to assume that opt-out mailing lists are the exclusive refuge of the fraudulent or hopelessly out-of-touch." 5. Inappropriate messages being sent to children's email boxes "Over the past year I've been increasingly inundated with junk email soliciting all manner of irrelevant and uninteresting 'products' of questionable quality and origin at best," Rob Davenport of Bailey Controls Company told us. "At worst, I receive email hawking their sex-oriented services which I do not want my children to have to deal with, and I shouldn't have to monitor all email for appropriateness, which I will have to do if such spammers continue to unconditionally send their ads to any and all email addresses they can dig up." According to Forrester Research, 15 percent of the U.S. population now uses email and, by 2001, that number is expected to soar to 50 percent -- 135 million people. We believe that the consumers, marketers and government must unite to oppose opt-out email marketing before a few bad apples ruin the Internet for everyone. Sincerely, Rosalind Resnick
April 11, 1997 Federal Trade Commission Re: Consumer Privacy 1997 Request to Participate, P954807 To the Secretary: I hereby request to participate in Session Two of the FTC's Consumer Privacy hearings on June 11 and 12, 1997. I have attached my comments as well. Feel free to contact me with any questions! Sincerely, Rosalind Resnick |
NetCreations,
Inc. 
NetCreations,
Inc.