Why Everyone Should Use Double Opt-In

Today I received a newsletter from a particular high school reunion website claiming that I had registered on their website and asked to receive their newsletter. Usually I just hit delete, but today I decided to investigate further. Keep in mind, I have never been to this site’s website, nor have I taken any action to become a member. Thankfully, for those of us who have ‘forgotten’ our username and password, they will happily email us the login info.

So, I get my username and password via email – a username I would have never picked… some combination of my yahoo email address and some random numbers – and I log in. Apparently they only got my name and email address right, because the other account info was completely off base, but it was still disturbing that my information – even false information – is traveling around the internet and randomly ending up on these kinds of websites.

I decided to check the privacy policy of the site, which assured me that “Only registered users will be able to receive newsletters. We will use your email address only to send you the newsletter(s) that you signed up for.” But they have no problems registering random people at their website, and as an added benefit, we get their newsletters too!

And it gets better. “By becoming a member, you authorize Reunion.com to share your Personally Identifiable Information with our advertisers. Our advertisers may use your Personally Identifiable Information to send you, via email or postal mail, advertisements or other notices, and it is possible that your information may be shared with others. ” So, not only do I get advertisements from them, which I didn’t sign up for in the first place, but my information is also shared with everyone else they decide to sell it to.

This is a major reason why you should always consider a double opt in policy. With simply an opt in policy, anyone can register any email address, regardless of if it belongs to them. As in this case above, my email address was registered and I’m now notified of my membership with their site because I’m subscribed to their newsletter. Perhaps they are a legit business who just so happened to buy a not so good list of names, but they have already made a negative impression on me.

With double opt in, I would have had to confirm my membership from the start. Someone may be able to register my email address, but I would receive a confirmation, usually in the form of a link that I’d have to click on, to confirm that I do, indeed, want to be a member of their website and/or receive their email newsletters. This is greatly increases the quality of your list and ensures you that the people on your list were the ones who signed up and want your offerings!

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