4 ms·

Or they interpret any kind of interaction after a while of inactivity as "yes please sign me up for all your newsletters, even though I previously explicitly to

by thayne 2y ago

Or they interpret any kind of interaction after a while of inactivity as "yes please sign me up for all your newsletters, even though I previously explicitly told you to unsubscribe me"

malfist 2y ago
The worst for this is Shopify. If you've ever given your email to shopify, they will absolutely share it to a page you visit, even if you don't check out. Throw something in the cart at a random website? Now you're on their mailing list and get reminders to finish checking out. Doesn't matter that you never consented. I don't know how this isn't a violate of the CAN-SPAM act
- beretguy 2y ago
  Now is a good time to mention SimpleLogin. So... yeah. SimpleLogin.
- james_marks 2y ago
  I’ve looked into this a bit- I believe it’s related to the checkout page loading with a default of “Agrees to Marketing”. What happens- at scale and I have to believe deliberately- is the “checkout created” event with that flag set to true is considered as “opted-in” by the marketing automation platforms everyone uses, like Klayvio. Even if you immediately un-check it, un-checking doesn’t trigger an unsubscribe event, since you never submitted the form in the first place. And because your Shopify session is now shared across stores, your email address gets opted-into marketing just visiting a checkout page.
  - thirdsun 2y ago
    It's up to the store owner to actually default to "agrees to marketing". I'm not sure if Shopify is to blame when it's the owner that used an illegitimate opt-out for that setting instead of an opt-in. And of course, follow-up mails for abandoned carts are an optional setting too.
    - james_marks 2y ago
      The default for “Agrees to marketing” controls if the box defaults to checked on checkout, so I do think if the store disabled that you wouldn’t be subscribed. My theory is it started by accident- if you get a notification that says, “this checkout, this email, agrees to marketing: true”, it sure reads like an opt-in, and it used to be reliable. But it’s not anymore, because your email is already attached to the checkout when its created. “Agrees to Marketing” pre-dates the global Shop session by years, it’s plausibly an ecosystem bug; one with no real motivation to solve until customers start talking (more)
- 0_____0 2y ago
  Shit, that's devious. Thanks for mentioning that.

by thayne 2y ago

Or they interpret any kind of interaction after a while of inactivity as "yes please sign me up for all your newsletters, even though I previously explicitly told you to unsubscribe me"

malfist 2y ago

The worst for this is Shopify. If you've ever given your email to shopify, they will absolutely share it to a page you visit, even if you don't check out. Throw something in the cart at a random website? Now you're on their mailing list and get reminders to finish checking out. Doesn't matter that you never consented. I don't know how this isn't a violate of the CAN-SPAM act

beretguy 2y ago
Now is a good time to mention SimpleLogin. So... yeah. SimpleLogin.
james_marks 2y ago
I’ve looked into this a bit- I believe it’s related to the checkout page loading with a default of “Agrees to Marketing”. What happens- at scale and I have to believe deliberately- is the “checkout created” event with that flag set to true is considered as “opted-in” by the marketing automation platforms everyone uses, like Klayvio. Even if you immediately un-check it, un-checking doesn’t trigger an unsubscribe event, since you never submitted the form in the first place. And because your Shopify session is now shared across stores, your email address gets opted-into marketing just visiting a checkout page.
- thirdsun 2y ago
  It's up to the store owner to actually default to "agrees to marketing". I'm not sure if Shopify is to blame when it's the owner that used an illegitimate opt-out for that setting instead of an opt-in. And of course, follow-up mails for abandoned carts are an optional setting too.
  - james_marks 2y ago
    The default for “Agrees to marketing” controls if the box defaults to checked on checkout, so I do think if the store disabled that you wouldn’t be subscribed. My theory is it started by accident- if you get a notification that says, “this checkout, this email, agrees to marketing: true”, it sure reads like an opt-in, and it used to be reliable. But it’s not anymore, because your email is already attached to the checkout when its created. “Agrees to Marketing” pre-dates the global Shop session by years, it’s plausibly an ecosystem bug; one with no real motivation to solve until customers start talking (more)
0_____0 2y ago
Shit, that's devious. Thanks for mentioning that.