4 ms·

Im pretty sure as a subscriber their email strategy is illegal in Canada. Last I checked there was no unsubscribe buttons that removed me from all their emails.

Im pretty sure as a subscriber their email strategy is illegal in Canada. Last I checked there was no unsubscribe buttons that removed me from all their emails. I had to go spelunking in their interface to find the email options on different pages. Iirc one publication email would have an unsubscribe, but it only unsubscribes from that publication. There weren’t options to unsubscribe all from that button. For that I had to sign in and it wasn’t too easy to find the unsubscribe all option.

manuelmoreale 4y ago
Isn’t that normal? Like, I can’t unsubscribe from all Mailchimp newsletters for example. When you sign up to get emails form a specific author or publication you’re signing up to that specific newsletter, delivered to you by Substack.
- srcreigh 4y ago
  It's definitely a gray area. What if twitter sent you mails for each following account and you can't unsubscribe from them all? Or Amazon sent promos for different sellers and you can't unsubscribe from them all? Anyway there's other stuff. Via CAN SPAM laws, companies cannot pre-check subscription boxes (Substack does this in onboarding as well as when you subscribe via browsing their site). [0][1] Also their consent gathering is not up to par. The regulations "require that a request for consent must contain a statement indicating that the person whose consent is sought can withdraw their consent." Last, there may be something about how Substack bundles subscribing to publication on their dashboard into emails. To me this isn't unlike how following on twitter can't automatically subscribe to newsletter emails. There's specific callouts in CAN SPAM about such bundling. Ie you can't bundle accepting terms of service with receiving emails. [0]: https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-549.htm https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-549.htm [1]: https://i.imgur.com/8tmDRGI.png https://i.imgur.com/8tmDRGI.png [2]: https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-548.htm https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-548.htm
  - manuelmoreale 4y ago
    The main difference between Substack and your examples, is that on Substack the email IS the content. You’re not receiving a notifications for content to be consumed on Twitter or on Amazon. As for the other things you mentioned, those are more legal things I know absolutely nothing about and so I won’t comment on them because I honestly don’t have anything to contribute.
    - srcreigh 4y ago
      What you’re saying is more true of something like mailchimp or sendgrid. Since substack hosts the blog post on their site (with recommendations and everything) to me it’s more akin to a FB/twitter situation requiring separate consent vs follow.
imran-iq 4y ago
You can report them here: <https: //www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/frm-eng/MMCN-9EZV6S> I've done it a few times, its suprisingly quite nice. They generate a unique email you can forward the offending message to

manuelmoreale 4y ago

Isn’t that normal? Like, I can’t unsubscribe from all Mailchimp newsletters for example. When you sign up to get emails form a specific author or publication you’re signing up to that specific newsletter, delivered to you by Substack.

srcreigh 4y ago
It's definitely a gray area. What if twitter sent you mails for each following account and you can't unsubscribe from them all? Or Amazon sent promos for different sellers and you can't unsubscribe from them all? Anyway there's other stuff. Via CAN SPAM laws, companies cannot pre-check subscription boxes (Substack does this in onboarding as well as when you subscribe via browsing their site). [0][1] Also their consent gathering is not up to par. The regulations "require that a request for consent must contain a statement indicating that the person whose consent is sought can withdraw their consent." Last, there may be something about how Substack bundles subscribing to publication on their dashboard into emails. To me this isn't unlike how following on twitter can't automatically subscribe to newsletter emails. There's specific callouts in CAN SPAM about such bundling. Ie you can't bundle accepting terms of service with receiving emails. [0]: https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-549.htm https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-549.htm [1]: https://i.imgur.com/8tmDRGI.png https://i.imgur.com/8tmDRGI.png [2]: https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-548.htm https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2012/2012-548.htm
- manuelmoreale 4y ago
  The main difference between Substack and your examples, is that on Substack the email IS the content. You’re not receiving a notifications for content to be consumed on Twitter or on Amazon. As for the other things you mentioned, those are more legal things I know absolutely nothing about and so I won’t comment on them because I honestly don’t have anything to contribute.
  - srcreigh 4y ago
    What you’re saying is more true of something like mailchimp or sendgrid. Since substack hosts the blog post on their site (with recommendations and everything) to me it’s more akin to a FB/twitter situation requiring separate consent vs follow.

imran-iq 4y ago

You can report them here: <https: //www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/frm-eng/MMCN-9EZV6S> I've done it a few times, its suprisingly quite nice. They generate a unique email you can forward the offending message to