Emailing you re: FT is one thing. Sending you SPAM is another. OVMV.

Cheers.

They are clearly in violation of the EU privacy laws if they are sending unsolicited spam.

The fact that they bought FT doesn't give them a permission to send any spam none whatsoever.

Who is the first one to take these clowns to court in Europe where the laws can actually be endorced?

I don't believe European anti-spam laws can be enforced against an American company operating out of the USA.

It looks like US law was broken in this case, though, by not providing a working opt-out address...

Although I was the one who started this thread I'm not jumping up and down too much. I still feel that this was a breach of trust (I provided an email address so that I could be emailed about FT-related matters, I did not expect to receive spam), however, I also appreciate that the email we received was within the LETTER (though not within the spirit) of the published privacy policy as the spam came from FT's new owners. I'm still not very happy... but life is too short.

Because some of us HATE spam. I go really ballistic over it. However, it takes more than one spam for me to launch.

I, too, received the spam email from IB, with headers & IP address pointing back to IB.

Oh come off it. Oftentimes FT always descends into 'who can I can sue?'. Of course, if you are being ironic, please accept my apologies.

I'm cheesed off but it's not that big a catastrophe- I just want to be able to opt out.

Why should you have to opt out when you never opted in?

Precisely.

Also, it is a well-known fact that most spammers' opt-out mechanisms are fake. By replying to a spammer, or clicking on their link, you confirm that your address is live. Instead of getting less spam you will get more spam because the existing spammer will continue to spam you and he will also sell your address to others as he has confirmation that it is a live address.

I'm not saying that IB - were they provide a VALID opt-out address - would engage in this type of abuse. What I'm saying is that people who are savvy about spam will not normally click on opt-out links, for the reason just stated.

Mailing lists should be opt-in, not opt-out - ALWAYS. I would not have objected too much to an email from IB saying "Please reply to this email if you don't mind being spammed by us", but spamming without permission is wrong.

FYI, from my limited understanding, if the opt out had functioned properly on receipt of the message, it would have not violated the CAN-SPAM act.

However, with the broken opt out (most likely they never tried it outside of their own network as the error was a relay issue) they did violate the CAN-SPAM act.

At this point, I am comfortable that my DATA privacy was protected and that IB did not sell my info to a third party without my notice.

I have ensured that I have unsubscribed to any FT mailings (I had done this once before but I have done it again) and if I receive any more email at this point it will be considered SPAM as I have withdrawn my consent to receive any materials promotional or administrative from FT.

Dan

Hm. Either you guys have way too low a tolerance for spam or I have way too high a tolerance. Like many of you, I set up separate mailboxes for various purposes, but I do so because I EXPECT that submitting an email address online will eventually lead to spam. That's why I use a mail service with a good spam filter. Life is waaaay too short to go chasing after every online spammer when it takes less than a second to click 'mark as spam...'

And let me be clear: if IB does decide that my being open to their spam is the price of the wealth of information and community that I get from FT then I think that is a tiny, tiny price to pay for the ROI. @:-)

Most spam is illegal, and the appropriate response is zero tolerance. If it weren't for spam filters, I'd be flooded with hundreds of pieces of trash per day. That IB's spam made it through the filters doesn't make it any better.

To reiterate what I've posted elsewhere on the site, FlyerTalkers will not get any more mailings from IB, as this caused more confusion and frustration than the value we had hoped. And of course, we do honor all opt-out requests across all our sites. We want to be a good partner with all our communities, of course including FT!

Thank you for the update.

Thanks for the update and Privacy and Opt-Out assurances.

Dan

Yeah, what he said! Thanks.

Cheers.

I really appreciate the update as well. The spam was going to my work email because I use FT for work-related travel issues and that was not appropriate.

Thank you John McG!