|
|
Joe St Sauver, Ph.D.
Director, User Services and Network Applications
joe@uoregon.edu
In some cases, you may do business with a company but not provide them with your email address. Nonetheless, you may suddenly be surprised to find that that company is contacting you by email! How did they get your email address if you didn't give it to them?
In a word: “e-pending,” or email address appending.
E-pending is the process of "augmenting" an existing customer record with the customer's email address or other information--information which has been obtained (for a fee) from some other party. Numerous commercial entities offer this as an online "service," in some cases relying on nebulously obtained "opt-in" email addresses.
Obviously this can raise significant privacy issues (particularly in cases where the e-pending may have been done inaccurately, potentially resulting in confidential customer information being sent to the wrong person, or customers failing to receive notices that they wanted and otherwise would have received via a postal mail address that they'd provided, or other channels).
For your own privacy and security, we recommend that you avoid transactions with companies known to engage in e-pending.
If you yourself are contemplating e-pending email addresses to a database you maintain, we strongly recommend against it.
Note: The references provided below are listed for your edification only, and their mention should not be construed as endorsement of the policies or practices they espouse.
1. Direct Marketing Association's new guidelines for the use of e-pending
by its members:
http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/disppressrelease?article=552
2. AIM/CRE Recommendations for E-mail Append
http://www.interactivehq.org/councils/CRE/bpappend.asp