Privacy issues

[MaryCarson]

It looks like somebody gave (or presumably sold) to Agilent the email address I have affiliated with this account. I suspect Separation Sciences. Do I have the option of stopping that in the future?

Mary

[krickos]

Well
You can remove email info from profile, but once you publish it in a thread I see no way getting around the risk of it happening. I would expect someone wanting to add me to a send list to ask first.

Giving your email away to specific persons via enabeling some sort of personal message function (just to share contact details) could be limiting of course but no certainty.

[MaryCarson]

That particular address is not visible in my profile, nor have I ever posted it directly.

[krickos]

well user info should not be past on to third parties (according to user agreement) so out of clues here.

[tom jupille]

Actually, the registration agreement reads (in part) as follows:
"By registering with this forum users agree to receive selected correspondence from Separation Science, owners of Chromatography Forum. Such correspondence will include, but not be limited to, educational and learning materials relevant to users of chromatography, mass spectrometry and related techniques. Users can unsubscribe from these services at any time."

I administer the content of the Forum but have little to do with the commercial side so this is not the official word, but:
- Agilent *is* a sponsor of the Forum, so it's quite possible that Separation Science e-mailed promo material on their behalf or allowed them to e-mail to Forum users. Either way, there should have been an "unsubscribe" link in the e-mails.

Speaking personally, I really don't object to "spam" emails that are relevant to what I do. I've got the inbox filters set up to route them to the appropriate "read when time permits" folders and I find them a useful adjunct to the Forum for keeping up with what's new in the field. Of course, the key word here is "relevant"!

By the way, if anyone's interested, I can forward some fascinating business opportunities laundering cash from widows of Nigerian government ministers.

[bisnettrj2]

Tom:

Is there an opt-out at the chromforum.org level? If I didn't want promotional emails sent to me, it would be nice to not get them at all, rather than having to unsubscribe to every "junk" email that comes in.

Personally, I've abandoned all hope for my email account - I've got 5000 unread emails in there, and I only read stuff with a mildly interesting subject. I bet others out there don't want to get into my inbox situation if they can help it!

[tom jupille]

The phpBB software doesn't allow that fine a level of control; it's basically "all or nothing".

For what it's worth, I actually get a lot more spam on my home (yahoo) account than I do on the work account(s). And most of that is either of the "419" variety (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/419eater.com) or pitches for alleged cheap ED meds.

[CE Instruments]

As a supplier I can confirm we maintain and collect contact details of potential and actual customers. Under data protection laws we will remove you from our systems if you request it and I spend a long time removing any requests and deleting old addresses when we do an e-shot. Getting an e-mail address can be as easy as knowing your name and your company, we certainly don't buy addresses, most are gained direct. You may get mails from major vendors via mailing lists like LC-GC, your address remains with the list owner but they sell the ability to mail their list with the vendors advert.
At what level do people here feel mail is SPAM ? Any mail even from your system supplier ? Once or twice a year with the latest innovations ? Monthly ? Any more often than monthly I would consider too often.

[MaryCarson]

For what it's worth, I actually get a lot more spam on my home (yahoo) account than I do on the work account(s).

It is actually the opposite in my case--my work email unfortunately has lousy spam control and there does not seem to be much I can do about it. Years ago that email made it onto a Pakistani mailing list, so now each day I have 20-30 offers to buy something in Islamabad or get help emigrating to Canada. But as I told Tom in a pm, I really don't mind hearing from chromatography vendors on my work email. I've bought enough equipment and handed out enough business cards at meetings that I am already on the mailing lists of a lot of the vendors I see here.

However, I only see my work email from my work computer. I find this forum so useful and entertaining that I sometimes check in on it on weekends. So, awhile back I changed which email I have linked to this forum. I'm just trying to be a little more protective of that email.

[Blazer]

I can into the same issue, Mary. My email account registered with SepScience ended up on a mailing list and now get flooded with offers from things like VIPCasino and UltimateGaming and various other nonsense (phishing for tax credentials is the latest). I contacted Tom about this several weeks ago and he put me in contact with Dean Graimes of SepScience. Dean called me and said I was the first case he had heard. Perhaps if you contacted him this issue could be escalated and they can investigate more thoroughly.

[aldehyde]

Yeah having subscribed to this forum and also getting free copies of LC*GC connections I get tons of emails, honestly I don't mind. I unsubscribe from the ones that aren't interesting...but this forum is a wonderful resource and it costs money to host and maintain. A little money on the back end from advertising and sponsorship is OK in my mind, at least it is well targeted spam .