Is it fair game to auto-subscribe someone to my email list when they sign up for my app?
Hi IHers!
Basically the title... I'm wondering if auto subscribing users to my mailchimp list to get updates (which I don't send many) is fine or if I need to add a checkbox in the registration form. I'm not sure what the rules are surrounding this and I couldn't find much with a cursory search.
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For GDPR (and ethical purposes) you should really put an opt in check box.
That's what I'll do then. I figured I should after making this post anyway. Thanks!
Sometimes it helps writing things out to help think through the problem at hand. 😇
There's also big regional differences in this.
In the U.S. it feels like almost every company starts spamming with emails if you signup. And if they do ask that consent they'll do it in some minuscule way that I always miss.
In Finland (perhaps other places in Europe as well?) it was much less pronounced. Much less uninvited spam.
Personally I'd hate it if my consent to being contacted for transactional mail is abused for promotional mail purposes.
Lots of people do that, but personally I don't.
On Bannerbear.com after you sign up, there is a specific call to action on the dashboard that asks you if you would like to subscribe to the newsletter. You can either click yes, or no. If you say no, it never asks again.
I prefer to do it this way as I want newsletter subscribers who actually want to receive the content - having a bunch of people on my mailing list who don't want the content, is not useful to me.
Thanks for your suggestion, I like this idea a lot!
If you think about it, that's exactly what big companies do. When you make an Amazon account you're going to get news and promotional emails. YOU have to go and update the email settings.
But like others have said: I would just add an opt-out checkbox on the registration page.
Yup! In this case though, I'll stick to the transactional/hello email in this case and not auto-add them to the mailchimp list.
Apart from the privacy advice:
I think you can probably get away with it because you're probably in the stage of early adopters, however that doesn't mean you should do it.
For me personally it would be ok but for others it might leave a bad taste in their mouth, it's just that you already get so much spam there is a base level of annoyance already :)
You shouldn't. You can totally have an opt-in. Do you actually want a bunch of people who just mark your newsletter as spam and get a sour taste because you did so without their consent?
Good thing that you made a post about this @Wesleysaur.
In a world full of privacy invasions, I don't think auto-opting might be such a good idea. I'm doing GDPR compliances for ruttl and i can tell you that it is very strict when it comes to using people's data.
I saw that you decided to put in an "opt-in" check box, so good decision on that!
Do let us know your progress soon!