Nowhere do I state that the emails can be used for other purposes and there is no opt-in or opt-out for promotional emails.
This really is the key in my opinion. When I give my email to an organization I expect it to be used for the purpose implied at the time it was handed over. If there is no "opt-out of promotional email" option on the form, I assume I will not be receiving promotional email (or I simply do not provide my address if I don't trust the organization). I would say that what your director is asking is unethical, but they may not understand why.
It is common for people to expect spam after giving their email address out to an organization. It's a sad commentary on how low our expectations have become as a consequence of how companies have treated us over the last decade, but it is an assumption that many people have, and a behavior that many have stopped questioning. Try to put it in terms your director would understand. Remind them that email is not some fake digital thing that's somehow separate from the rest of reality, and that it doesn't follow different basic rules of etiquette and trust. Compare it to handing over donor phone numbers, or sending people to knock on the doors of every teacher at their home address. Ask them if they think either of those two options are okay. If they say yes, then there's a bigger divide between your perspectives than maybe you realized.
Remind them that unsolicited email marketing is terribly ineffective. There is very little to gain from doing this, no matter how much an email marketing firm claims otherwise. Opt-in email marketing can be pretty effective, but spam is not and never really has been. The only reason spam continues to exist is because of the scale of spam operations. A 0.5% click rate can amount to success when you're sending out literally millions of mails. But when you're targeting a community of teachers in your local area, that unsolicited email will be lucky to get a single positive response. It's not worth the risk of alienating your contacts over.
At the very least, you should provide an "opt-out of promo emails" checkbox from now on when collecting emails from anyone, so that the argument is more clear the next time someone asks for your contact list. We are always clear when we collect email addresses that they will be used for one and only one purpose, or we provide an opt-out field of some kind at the time of email collection. These conversations then never occur, because we already know which contacts have agreed to receive promotional email, and which haven't. That doesn't help you much now, but it should help in the future.
As for the CAN-SPAM act: Technically, as long as you provide the recipient with an opt-out mechanism in the email (and honor those opt-outs in future mails) it's not a violation. So you don't have to worry about the $40,654 fine (per email sent). But pointing out to your director that such fines exist might help make the point that sending unsolicited email is a problem that should be taken seriously. CAN-SPAM penalties usually end up in fines that are millions of dollars (it only takes 25 emails to break a million in fines, and some states, like California, add additional penalties on top of the federal fines).
I am not a lawyer, and you shouldn't take any legal advice from me. Read the law yourself. Consult an actual expert, etc.
eCFR - Code of Federal Regulations
| Ecfr |
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| eCFR - Code of Federal Regulations |
| (p) "Valid physical postal address" means the sender's current street address, a Post Office box the sender has accurately registered with the United States Postal Service, or a private mailbox the sender has accurately registered with a commercial mail receiving agency that is established pursuant to United States Postal Service regulations. |
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Shorter guide here:
CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business
| Federal Trade Commission |
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| CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business |
| Do you use email in your business? The CAN-SPAM Act, a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations. Despite its name, the CAN-SPAM Act doesn't apply just to bulk email. |
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Matt Popke
Developer
Denver Art Museum
Denver CO
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-02-2017 04:39 PM
From: Tonya Staggs
Subject: Visitor Email Ethics
Recently I have come in conflict with the Board Director at the historic house museum where I work as Education Director over access and use of visitor emails. In the process of booking field trips I collect emails from the teachers reserving the program to send them guidebooks and their confirmation. Nowhere do I state that the emails can be used for other purposes and there is no opt-in or opt-out for promotional emails. I never use email addresses collected as part of the reservation process to send marketing or fundraising materials that are not part of education/field trip programming. The board director has approached me wanting me to give a list of all my home school registrants (for field trips) to them for use in fundraising and other marketing campaigns. I felt really uncomfortable to do so and refused on the grounds of the CAN-SPAM Act, but now she has come back saying that I MUST give those emails to the board. I feel like I am being asked to do something both unethical and possibly illegal. Also, my director is not backing me up on this issue. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank-you!
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Tonya Staggs
Education Director
Travellers Rest Plantation & Museum
Nashville TN
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