Antyspam policy
PERMISSION | PERMISSION SIGN IN
At EMC, we take permission very seriously. By creating an account and agreeing to our Terms of Use, you are also agreeing to this anti-spam policy.
The law isn't enough, it's permission that counts
While the CAN-SPAM laws are a step in the right direction for reducing the spam problem, we don't feel they go far enough. Our definition of spam goes beyond the laws in most countries and encompasses what we believe to be true permission email marketing.
Spam is any email you send to someone who hasn't given you their direct permission to contact them on the topic of the email.
But that's not enough. Permission is a fuzzy word open to interpretation. Let's get into some specific scenarios so it's clear what does and doesn't constitute permission.
What kind of email addresses are OK to send to with EMC?
To send E-mail to anyone using EMC, you must have clearly obtained their permission. This could be done through:
An email newsletter subscribe form on your web site.
An opt-in checkbox on a form. This checkbox must not be checked by default, the person completing the form must willingly select the checkbox to indicate they want to hear from you.
If someone completes an offline form like a survey or enters a competition, you can only contact them if it was explained to them that they would be contacted by email AND they ticked a box indicating they would like to be contacted.
Customers who have purchased from you within the last 2 years.
If someone gives you their business card and you have explained to them that you will be in touch by email, you can contact them. If they dropped their business card in a fishbowl at a trade show, there must be a sign indicating they will be contacted by email.
Basically, you can only ever email anyone who has clearly given you permission to email them specifically about the subject you're contacting them about.
What kind of E-mail address ARE NOT OK to send to with EMC?
Anything outside the examples above doesn't equal permission in our eyes, but here are some examples to make sure we're crystal clear. By using EMC, you agree not to import or send to any E-mail address which:
You do not have explicit, provable permission to contact in relation to the topic of the email you're sending.
You bought, loaned, rented or in any way acquired from a third party, no matter what they claim about quality or permission. You need to obtain permission yourself.
You haven't contacted via email in the last 2 years. Permission doesn't age well and these people have either changed email address or won't remember giving their permission in the first place.
You scraped or copy and pasted from the web. Just because people publish their email address doesn't mean they want to hear from you.
Sure, some of these people might have given you their E-mail address, but what's missing is your permission to mail them commercial messages. Blasting promotional mails to any of these people won't be effective and will more than likely see your mail marked as spam by many of your recipients.
What content MUST I include in my email?
Every email you send using EMC must include the following:
A single-click unsubscribe link that instantly removes the subscriber from your list. Once they unsubscribe, you can never email them again.
- The name and physical address of the sender. If you're sending an email for your client, you'll need to include your client's details instead.
How we'll know if you don't have permission
EMC has numerous layers of approval and monitoring to ensure you comply with our anti-spam policy. Here's a few of them:
Until your account has been approved by a member of our team, every email you send will need to be approved.
Our software is directly integrated into the spam reporting systems for some of the biggest ISP's like Hotmail and AOL. If you don't have permission and someone marks your campaign as spam, we'll know about it the moment that button is pressed. If you receive a complaint rate greater than 0.25% of all recipients (that's 25 complaints for every 10,000 recipients) your account will be terminated. This is a generous figure that takes into account false spam reports.
Our team verifies all large lists imported into our software. Until we've given it the all clear, you can't send to it.
- We monitor blacklists and our abuse accounts all day every day. We can pinpoint who is causing us delivery problems or attracting complaints very easily.
If we do discover that you're emailing people without their permission, we will terminate your account with EMC immediately.
Notes:
The Services are available only to persons who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. Without limiting the foregoing, the Services are not available to individuals under the age of 18. If you do not qualify, please do not use the Services.
Both the number of e-mail messages sent and the number of KiloBytes of data transferred are metered by EMC. Normal EMC accounts allow you to send an unlimited number of e-mail messages. The total KiloByte data transfer of each message can be no more than 100kb.
It is understood that EMC makes no guarantee that HTML messages will be rendered properly on all recipients' e-mail programs, due to the wide variety of HTML generation tools available. EMC makes every attempt to make sure that all e-mail messages sent through our servers follow e-mail standards, but we cannot guarantee that messages will look consistent across all e-mail platforms due to the number of different HTML composition tools available. For example, if you use Microsoft Word to generate HTML e-mail messages, it is expected that recipients of your message using a non-Microsoft e-mail application may have difficulty reading your message. For best results EMC recommends, but does not guarantee, the use of HTML editors that generate HTML that adheres to W3C standards.
EMC will not use any of your subscriber lists or any other customer information for any other purposes than those intended with the service. Your customer information will not be shared with any other parties. In addition, EMC will not use your customer information for the purpose of sending unsolicited commercial e-mail.
You may not use EMC to distribute illegal contests, pyramid schemes, chain letters, or multi-level marketing campaigns.
You may not use EMC to send email campaigns that link to or display nudity, obscene content, gambling related content, pharmaceutical related content, illegal software, viruses, or to distribute any other content that we deem inappropriate.
USE OF THE SERVICES AND ANY RELIANCE BY YOU UPON THE SERVICES, INCLUDING ANY ACTION TAKEN BY YOU BECAUSE OF SUCH USE OR RELIANCE, IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. EMC DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE; NOR DOES IT MAKE ANY WARRANTY AS TO THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM USE OF THE SERVICES. THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND EMC DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES AND UNDER NO LEGAL THEORY, TORT, CONTRACT, OR OTHERWISE, SHALL EMC OR ANY OF ITS UNDERLYING SERVICE PROVIDERS, BUSINESS PARTNERS, INFORMATION PROVIDERS, ACCOUNT PROVIDERS, LICENSORS, EMPLOYEES, DISTRIBUTORS OR AGENTS (COLLECTIVELY REFERRED TO FOR PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION AS "EMC") BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON FOR ANY MONEY DAMAGES, WHETHER DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, COVER, RELIANCE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF EMCr SHALL HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY. IN THE EVENT THAT NOTWITHSTANDING THE FOREGOING, EMC IS FOUND LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES FROM ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER, AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION (WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE), THE LIABILITY OF EMC TO YOU WILL BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID FOR THE SERVICE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THIS LIMITATION AND EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
All EMC customers must follow the rules of the federal CAN-SPAM act and EMC's Anti-Spam policy when sending e-mail through the service. Accordingly, we require the following of e-mail messages sent through the EMC system:
All e-mails must contain a one-click unsubscribe link. EMC scans every campaign for the existance of an unsubscribe link. If an unsubscribe link is not detected, the user is informed and is recommended to include an unsubscribe link before continuing.
All e-mails must contain non-Internet contact information of the sender, such as your company's address, or your company's phone number.
All e-mails must state the reason the recipient is receiving the message. For example, "You are receiving this message from ABC Company because you signed up for our e-mail list at www.abc.com."
These 3 guidelines will help ensure that EMC maintains its reputation and white-listing status with a number of major ISPs and whitelisting programs. If at any time your campaign is flagged as SPAM by an AOL recipient, EMC reserves the right to cancel your account without notice.
Every email message sent in connection with the Services must contain an "unsubscribe" link or other mechanism that allows subscribers to remove themselves from your mailing list. Each such link must remain operational for a period of thirty (30) days after the date on which you send the message, and must be in form and substance satisfactory to EMC. You acknowledge and agree that you will not remove, disable or attempt to remove or disable either link.
