Online Advertisers Target Spam
September 18, 2000
Online advertisers have formed a coalition to design email standards that will limit spam. A group of 15 companies have started RECA, the Responsible Electronic Communication Alliance. DoubleClick and 24/7 Media are among RECA's founding members. A statement from the alliance reads "RECA was formed to promote professional standards for online communication and marketing."
The alliance will work toward widely-accepted standards for messaging and e-commerce that are designed to respect consumer privacy and meet the needs of Internet service providers.
This sounds like the fox was put in charge of henhouse security. I think RECA is a last-ditch effort to keep the U.S. Federal Trade Commission off the backs of online marketers and out of the e- commerce business. RECA announced that it expects to issue detailed principles that are based on the U.S. FTC's endorsements of a few months ago.
RECA promises to police its members and ensure that only requested email advertisements will be sent by the members.
Ok, sounds like a first baby step. Now, how do we get all the other millions of loft-based global entrepreneur wannabes to stop sending foolish junk mail?
Dave Murphy, Itrain.org