Today was a landmark day for me – I was the victim of some misused personal information! Hooray!

I am joking about the “hooray” part, of course. Data privacy is no laughing matter, and if the information that was exposed to me today had been more significant, I would be pretty angry right now. As it so happens, it was not, so I feel comfortable sharing it with you all in the hope that we can all learn a bit by others’ foibles.

So at around noon today, I received a phone call from a representative at a home improvement ratings & reviews service that I am a happy member of. Unlike most review services, this one is a pay system that works on a subscription model, so it is not that strange that they would be contacting me with account or service information. However, after a moment of basic customer satisfaction survey-type questions, the conversation moved into some uncomfortable territory.

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In case you didn’t know it, January 28 was Data Privacy Day, celebrated in 29 countries worldwide! While we weren’t able to procure any Rick Astley appearances or even a severely miscalculated power slide by Bruce Springsteen, we did manage to check in with our resident privacy and compliance expert, Ben Isaacson. Below, Ben I. gives a quick run-down on the things that the truly responsible email marketers among us should never, ever, ever do!

Top 10 Things Responsible Email Marketers Should NEVER Do:

1. Never send an email to recipients who have complained and ask them, “Why did you press the spam button…I thought you liked our stuff?”
2. Never personalize emails by casually dropping Big Brother-ish web analytics data; “Since you opened and clicked through 4 of the last 6 emails, we thought you’d like this offer.”
3. Never further personalize emails by saying, “We saw you shopped for 3 hours the other night for this exact item, so here it is!” 
4. Never require customers to register (or login) before they can unsubscribe from your list.
5. If you append Experian INSOURCE® (or other) demographic profiles, never over-share non-personally identified information; “Since you are a single male over 35 who loves dogs, we thought you’d also love this.” 
6. Never share email lists with partners.
7. Never embed registration forms in emails.
8. Never tell users they must reconfirm their list subscription by clicking through and providing all of their personal information. 
9. Never use Refer-A-Friend technology to automatically add forwarded friends to your email list.
10. Never mail your unsubscribed recipients and say; “We know you unsubscribed, but our Email Service Provider told us it was OK to keep mailing you!”  :-)

Happy (Belated) Data Privacy Day!