kinda pissed off at FS (the networking company) who try to sidestep the whole "it's not legal to send you marketing emails without an opt out" thing by assigning everyone an account manager (read: marketing intern) from whose email marketing emails are sent.
normally it gets auto filtered into the marketing folder anyway but occasionally one gets through to my main inbox, and today's was some shite about LLMs, so I finally replied and told them to fuck off.
@gsuberland you need a dose of our marketing laws :) Here you have to opt-in to get marketing emails - unless - you are already a customer (and a current one at that, a former customer is automatically exempt from marketing).
IF I get a call, my first question will be "Where did you get this number, did you know I'm on a no-call list and what is your name? Now connect me with your manager so I know who to sue."
@thor ours actually isn't any different in that regard when it comes to phonecalls. marketing calls are explicitly not allowed unless you opt in, and companies face hefty fines for violating that.
@gsuberland marketing emails and phonecalls are bundled into the same law here (lazy goodness?) but I like the hefty fines. I don't know of a single company here that has actually been fined even if the law allows for it...
@thor before the laws came in we used to get 2-3 marketing calls a day trying to sell us double glazing or a new energy plan. I think the country was just collectively tired of it and decided to make it stop.
@gsuberland that explains why the only scam calls I get are from +44 ;) They've found new pastures to graze in 🤭(my old phone had about 50 UK phone numbers blocked :) )
@thor scam calls are still a thing becuase it's already illegal so they don't care about marketing call laws. but since everyone uses smartphones these days it only takes a few minutes before the spam/scam reports stack up and the number gets cut off by the carrier or by Google/Apple. scammers mostly moved to either targeted cons with smaller call volumes and higher payouts or SMS spam since it's easier to automate.
@HeNeArXn the language of the PECR in the UK has an exemption for emails "where a customer relationship exists", which is intended to exempt direct email communications about projects (e.g. "hey did everything work out ok for you with [x]?" after you bought something). they're attempting to launder automated marketing emails through the guise of an account manager to abuse that loophole. (this would not survive an ICO complaint because it's a clear manipulation of the intent)
@gsuberland hmm... I would've thought explicitly refusing marketing use would work either way (without having to argue about automatic or not), but I guess the PECR part could be interpreted as allowing justified interest under (UK-)GDPR for non-automated contacts?
if I had any follow-through capability whatsoever I'd canvas other folks who get these marketing emails, collate them as evidence, and send a complaint to the ICO about this attempted sidestep of legislation.
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