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Reserving the right to send non-commercial communications
By Gearhead, NetworkWorld.com, 03/16/05
The LA Times just sent us a message from their sponsors that concludes with:
You are receiving this e-mail because you are a registered user of latimes.com or calendarlive.com. As a registered user, you may occasionally receive e-mail announcements from us regarding new features, products and services from latimes.com, calendarlive.com, our affiliates and select third party advertisers. For more information on how we protect your information, please read our privacy policy.
OK, we're with them so far. But then they continue (that's our underlining):
If you do not wish to receive commercial email solicitations, click here and you may unsubscribe from receiving any such commercial email. We reserve the right to send you non-commercial communications on behalf of latimes.com, calendarlive.com and our affiliates (e.g., CareerBuilder.com), when consistent with our Privacy Policy.
So, you get us to register then show us ads when we visit and then expect us to accept your "non-commercial communications"? Which raises the question of what exactly would "non-commercial communications" from the likes of calendarlive.com be and why would the LA Times send something that had no value to them?
We checked out the options offered in the Web-based account interface and found that the only way to stop the non-commercial communications that they reserve the right to send is to unsubscribe completely.
It makes you wonder what they'll do next. Perhaps require a click-through response to confirm you've read the message otherwise they'll suspend your account?
We see no problem with requiring us to register and then showing us ads to generate revenue for a "free" service but when you start demanding that we receive your non-commercial communications (a misnomer if ever there was one) you must be either desperate to make your target or be overvaluing your service.
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