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Summary:
Outsourced or Third-Party solutions for
email list management, including ezines, newsletters, autoresponders
and such like, are known to be vulnerable to abuse by spammers.
Sensible policies and diligent enforcement
by mailing list and autoresponder hosting services can ensure that this
potential avenue of exploitation of email servers and compromization of
network security by spammers is minimized.
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| Ref # |
Principle or Proposed Principle
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| LHS001 |
List Hosting Services should ensure that
all lists hosted only accept new subscriber listings where the
subscribers have been added to the mailing list via either:
- A confirmed-opt-in (sometimes referred to
as 'double-opt-in') process; or
- A paid subscription
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| LHS002 |
List Hosting Services should ensure that
all lists hosted have, use and publicise in all mailings a clear and
easy-to-use unsubscription procedure. |
| LHS003 |
Before accepting a new client with a
pre-existing mailing list, the List Hosting Service should make all
possible enquiries and conduct a thorough "due diligence" to ensure
that that the existing list being transfered has been acquired via
either:
- Confirmed-opt-in (sometimes referred to
as 'double-opt-in') processes; or
- Paid subscription processes,
And that the subscribed recipients have, at all times, been provided
with a clear and easy-to-use unsubscription procedure which has been
publicised in all prior mailings. |
| LHS004 |
List Hosting Services should ensure that
their Terms of Service / Acceptable Use Policy include a strong
antispam clause, prohibiting the ending of unsolicited email, whether
directly from the service being hosted, or from any other source where
reference is made to the mailing list or the any website used to
promote the list,with violation resulting in immediate account
termination of all accounts associated with the offender without
further warning, and the imposition of a "cleanup" fee. (For the sake
of example and recommendation only - $US2,500-00 .) |
| LHS005 |
List Hosting Services should maintain an
adequately and competently staffed abuse desk on a 24 hour, 365 day per
year basis. The contact details for the abuse desk should be readily
and easily accessible on the website of the List Hosting Service, and
also listed with the Network Abuse Clearinghouse at http://abuse.net |
| LHS006 |
In the event of a clear cut violation of
Terms of Service / Acceptable Use Policy, the List Hosting Service
should terminate all accounts associated with the offender, within two
(2) hours of an evidence-based abuse report being received.
In the event of a prima facie violation (such as where a list is
implicated, though the possibility that it has been maliciously
implicated exists), appropriate investigations should be conducted,
completed and acted upon within 24 hours. In the event that a violation
is proven, the List Hosting Service should terminate all accounts
associated with the offender immediately. |
| LHS007 |
List Hosting Services must also stipulate
in their Terms of Service that clients are obliged to comply with all
relevant Federal, State or Other anti-spam laws and Statutes applicable
in the jurisdiction of both the Server itself as well as that of the
publisher. |
| LHS008 |
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| LHS009 |
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| LHS010 |
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| LHS011 |
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| LHS012 |
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