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Unsolicited commercial email must not be sent.
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Commercial email must not be sent to an individual's e-mail address
unless one of the following situations exists:
- There is an existing business relationship; or
- Prior informed consent of the individual has been obtained.
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Every commercial email must include an opportunity for the recipient
to unsubscribe from receiving such email in the future. Such requests
to unsubscribe must be processed promptly and the recipient should be
informed of the length of time required for processing.
Commercial email must not include "from address" fields, subject
lines and message bodies that are misleading, false, or deceptive. Subject
lines must not mislead as to the content and purpose of the message.
Email addresses must not be gathered through surreptitious methods (e.g.,
scraping or harvesting).
Definitions:
Commercial Email: email messages, sent in volume,
the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion
of a product or service.
Business Relationship: A relationship between
the sender of an email message and the recipient. Such a relationship
may be created through the facilitation or completion of a commercial
transaction between the sender and a recipient. A business relationship
may also be created through prior correspondence initiated by an individual,
including requests for information, responses to questionnaires or surveys,
responses to sweepstakes or contests, or offline contact.
Informed Consent: A mechanism through which an
individual is clearly and fully notified of the collection and use of
an email address and has consented prior to such collection and use. Informed
Consent may be implemented in the following forms:
- Opt-in: At the point of email address collection, a person
has affirmatively requested to be included on an email list to receive
commercial email. No confirmation email is sent and the person is not
required to take further action to be included on the email list.
- Confirmed Opt-in: At the point of email address collection,
a person has affirmatively requested to be included on an email list
to receive commercial email. An email is subsequently sent to the person,
notifying the person that their email address has been added to the
email list. The person is not required to take further action to be
included on the email list.
- Double Opt-in: At the point of email address collection, a
person has affirmatively requested to be included on an email list to
receive commercial email. An email is subsequently sent to the person,
notifying the person that some action is necessary before their email
address will be added to the email list.
Unsubscribe: A mechanism through which an individual
may request that he or she no longer receive commercial email.
Unsolicited Commercial Email: Commercial Email
sent without an existing business relationship or prior informed consent.
From the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) Email
Service Provider Coalition at www.networkadvertising.org.
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