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In email land, the terms for helpful vs promotional are "transactional email" for the helpful stuff (e.g., https://mailchimp.com/help/about-transactional-email/

by dahart 4y ago

In email land, the terms for helpful vs promotional are "transactional email" for the helpful stuff (e.g., https://mailchimp.com/help/about-transactional-email/ https://mailchimp.com/help/about-transactional-email/) and "marketing email" for the promotional ones. There are channels to report abuse if it's bad, not to mention just leaving reviews and mentioning why.

webmobdev 4y ago
Had similar ideas - I share the author's frustration in India, the delivery apps and banking apps are the worst culprits. I wonder if the regulators can be asked to extend the "Do Not Call" registry to include barring such app notifications? For example, the National Do Not Call Registry in my country has now been renamed to National Customer Preference Register (NCPR). This now gives indians more fine-grained options to choose what kind of marketing calls we want to bar or receive: > “Transactional message” means a message triggered by a transaction performed by the subscriber, who is also the sender’s customer, provided such a message is sent within 30 minutes of the transaction being performed and is directly related to it. Provided that the transaction may be a banking transaction, delivery of OTP, purchase of goods or services, etc. ... “Unsolicited commercial communication or UCC” means any commercial communication that is neither as per the consent nor as per registered preference(s) of recipient, but shall not include: (i)Any transactional message or transactional voice call ... Source: TRAI regulation - https://trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/DraftUCCRegulation29052018.pdf https://trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/DraftUCCRegulation29... They can extend this to mobile OS notifications and ask Google, Apple, Samsung etc. (mobile OS makers) to ensure that all promotional messages through such notifications are blocked, and only "transactional messages" are allowed.
floren 4y ago
Expedia is really bad about calling all their promotions "transactional emails". You see, once upon a time in the distant past, I used Expedia, so based on that transaction surely I care deeply about how "A more rewarding travel experience is coming in February": http://jfloren.net/content/expedia.png http://jfloren.net/content/expedia.png
- kmod 4y ago
  I'm not sure of the bindingness of this page [1], but the FTC says that transactional-vs-promotional is determined by what what a recipient "reasonably interpret[s]" it as, not what the sender says it is. Not that this prevents the kind of abuse that you mention, but I find if I send a email responding to the kind of email you mention and I politely explain how it is a violation of CAN-SPAM and if reported is a five-figure fine per email, then I magically get added to some sort of "do not send promotional emails that we call transactional" opt-out. [1] https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act...
- gifnamething 4y ago
  Google is similar! Google helpfully emailed me to let me know that my storage is 70% full. ...as it was when they emailed me two months ago, and four months ago, and six months ago... Essentially, they get to pass off an email advertising Google Drive/Google One/who cares as an emergency transactional email, pretending that I'm close to running out of space. Can't block it or I'd be blocking everything from Google. I can try to filter it but they keep changing the wording. Evil and intentional.
shostack 4y ago
I'm sad that phone notifications aren't in the same category of governance as email. The promotional vs transactional requirement could be used to good effect here with opt out and CAN-SPAM legislation.

by dahart 4y ago

webmobdev 4y ago

Had similar ideas - I share the author's frustration in India, the delivery apps and banking apps are the worst culprits. I wonder if the regulators can be asked to extend the "Do Not Call" registry to include barring such app notifications? For example, the National Do Not Call Registry in my country has now been renamed to National Customer Preference Register (NCPR). This now gives indians more fine-grained options to choose what kind of marketing calls we want to bar or receive: > “Transactional message” means a message triggered by a transaction performed by the subscriber, who is also the sender’s customer, provided such a message is sent within 30 minutes of the transaction being performed and is directly related to it. Provided that the transaction may be a banking transaction, delivery of OTP, purchase of goods or services, etc. ... “Unsolicited commercial communication or UCC” means any commercial communication that is neither as per the consent nor as per registered preference(s) of recipient, but shall not include: (i)Any transactional message or transactional voice call ... Source: TRAI regulation - https://trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/DraftUCCRegulation29052018.pdf https://trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/DraftUCCRegulation29... They can extend this to mobile OS notifications and ask Google, Apple, Samsung etc. (mobile OS makers) to ensure that all promotional messages through such notifications are blocked, and only "transactional messages" are allowed.

floren 4y ago

Expedia is really bad about calling all their promotions "transactional emails". You see, once upon a time in the distant past, I used Expedia, so based on that transaction surely I care deeply about how "A more rewarding travel experience is coming in February": http://jfloren.net/content/expedia.png http://jfloren.net/content/expedia.png

kmod 4y ago
I'm not sure of the bindingness of this page [1], but the FTC says that transactional-vs-promotional is determined by what what a recipient "reasonably interpret[s]" it as, not what the sender says it is. Not that this prevents the kind of abuse that you mention, but I find if I send a email responding to the kind of email you mention and I politely explain how it is a violation of CAN-SPAM and if reported is a five-figure fine per email, then I magically get added to some sort of "do not send promotional emails that we call transactional" opt-out. [1] https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act...
gifnamething 4y ago
Google is similar! Google helpfully emailed me to let me know that my storage is 70% full. ...as it was when they emailed me two months ago, and four months ago, and six months ago... Essentially, they get to pass off an email advertising Google Drive/Google One/who cares as an emergency transactional email, pretending that I'm close to running out of space. Can't block it or I'd be blocking everything from Google. I can try to filter it but they keep changing the wording. Evil and intentional.

shostack 4y ago

I'm sad that phone notifications aren't in the same category of governance as email. The promotional vs transactional requirement could be used to good effect here with opt out and CAN-SPAM legislation.