Anti-spam policy

Anti-Spam Policy

thedatabank, gbc
effective December 15, 2006 | updated 2016

thedatabank’s Policy

thedatabank, gbc has a no tolerance spam policy. thedatabank’s client support actively monitors large import lists and emails going to a large number of subscribers. Any customer found to be using the Databank software for spam will be immediately cut off from use of the service. If you know of or suspect any violations, please notify us immediately at abuse@thedatabank.com.

Every email contains a mandatory unsubscribe link. If the link is removed or de-activated in any way, thedatabank will suspend the client’s account.

What is Spam?

Spam is unsolicited email also known as UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email) in which the recipient has no preexisting relationship with the sender and has not given consent to receive email from the sender. By sending email to only to those who have requested to receive it, you are following accepted permission-based email guidelines.

What constitutes a pre-existing business relationship?

The recipient of your email has made a donation, requested information, responded to a questionnaire or a survey, had offline or online contact with you.

What constitutes consent?

The recipient of your email has been clearly and fully notified of the collection and use of their email address and has consented prior to such collection and use. This is often called informed consent. Subscribers who have changed their Email Contact Preference to Unsubscribed are considered to have revoked their consent to be emailed. Accounts of clients found to be violating a recipient’s email consent preferences will be suspended.

Isn’t there a law against sending Spam?

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 went into effect on January 1st, 2004 and preempts all state laws. While this new law will not stop spam, it does make most spam illegal and ultimately less attractive to spammers. The law is specific about requirements to send commercial email and empowers the federal government to enforce the law. The penalties can include a fine and/or imprisonment for up to 5 years.

How thedatabank protects you from sending spam

Thedatabank’s PowerMail is a permission-based email-marketing tool that follows the strictest permission-based philosophies:

• Software control tools
  In compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, thedatabank independently adds an unsubscribe option to each email sent. Recipients can unsubscribe via this link. Recipients can also request to be unsubscribed by replying to any received email with “unsubscribe” in the subject line. Anyone who unsubscribes via the unsubscribe link will be automatically flagged in the database and their email address will be suppressed from all future mailings. Unsubscribes requested by replying to an email will need to be flagged by the sender in their databank. To further protect recipients from email abuse, those receiving email through thedatabank will only see their own name in the ‘To’ field. No other recipients’ email addresses are visible.
• Email sending practices
  Thedatabank honors ISP policies (restrictions on number of connections, speed of sending servers, no open relay, reverse DNS enabled, RFC compliance). Authentication standards, such as sender policy framework (SPF) or DKIM, are used for outgoing campaigns. thedatabank distinguishes between soft and hard bounces. Hard bounces are immediately flagged and suppressed from future mailings.
• Dealing with complaints
  When a complaint is received the following process is used:
  • Every complaint that is received is reviewed by thedatabank’s postmaster.
  • If the email address of the complainant is known, it will be immediately unsubscribed from the relevant client list by thedatabank.
  • If the email address of the complainant is known, the complainant will be notified by thedatabank that their email address has been removed.
  • If the complaint came via an ISP, they too will be notified of the action taken.
  • Thedatabank will also notify the client(s) on whose list(s) the complainant record was stored, about actions taken as result of the complaint.
• Protecting our reputation as an email service provider
  Thedatabank regularly scans over 100 different blacklists to be sure our servers are not listed as senders of spam. We are whitelisted with AOL, meaning our messages have been deemed over time to be trustworthy and are allowed to bypass AOL’s spam filtering. We aggressively follow up on any spam complaints with customers and ISPs.

How to protect yourself from Spam: Take the Spam Test

1. Are you importing a purchased list of ANY kind?
2. Are you sending to non-specific addresses such as:
   • sales@domain.com, business@domain.com, webmaster@domain.com, info@domain.com, or other general addresses?
3. Are you sending to distribution lists or mailing lists which send indirectly to a variety of email addresses?
4. Are you mailing to anyone who has not explicitly agreed to join your mailing list?
5. Have you falsified your originating address or transmission path information?
6. Have you used a third party email address or domain name without their permission?
7. Does your email’s subject line contain false or misleading information?
8. Does your email fail to provide a working link to unsubscribe?
9. Are you failing to process any unsubscribe requests that come to you via a reply to your email within 10 days of the request?

If you have answered YES to ANY of the above questions you will likely be labeled a SPAMMER. For more information visit The Coalition Against Unsolicited Email (www.cauce.org) or contact Client Support (clientsupport@thedatabank.com)