In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Paul Hoffman / IMC <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>At 09:16 PM 12/13/99 -0600, Stephanie da Silva wrote:
>>So I suppose this is a heads-up. The site in question is:
>>
>>www.listquest.com
>
>They list both TRUSTe and amazon.com at the bottom of their home pages.
>Maybe some mail to these two firms saying "do you know you're supporting a
>spammer" might help.
And how exactly would that help?
Amazon.Com has been caught spamming themselves on numerous occasions.
Why would they care if someone who is merely mentioning Amazon.Com on
their web site is doing likewise?
As regards to TRUSTe, given that they are on record as totally ignoring
the spamming and other blatant and massive violations of privacy under-
taken by, in particular, Real Networks, (which has earned a place on
the MAPS RBL no fewer than three times) what makes you think they would
have any reason to not just look the other way in this case too?
TRUSTe is on record as saying that the only implication that should be
drawn about a web site displaying the TRUSTe symbol is that the company
that owns the site in question has also posted a statement regarding
that company's own privacy policy on the same web site. The privacy
policy of any given TRUSTe member site can say _anything_, including
``Screw your privacy. We're going to monitor and track you every which
way we can. And then we are going to spam the hell out of you.''
(I'm not aware whether TRUSTe has any point-size restrictions on these
policy statements either. I suspect however that they are allowed to
be rendered in the smallest point size available with current technology.)
TRUSTe does not concern itself with the *contents* of the privacy policies
of its participating sites, only with whether they _have_ a policy, and
whether or not it is accessible on their respective web sites.
It's kind-of like giving Union Carbide the Good Housekeeping Seal of
Approval just because they had a sign outside of their Bhopal plant that
said ``Be advised that we keep dangerous chemicals here.''
