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Last week fox news covered a story regarding Americans receiving emails from David Axelrod, an advisor to the president with regard to health care.

In a press conference featured below Major Garrett (senior White House correspondent for the Fox News Channel) quizzed White House Press Secretary “Robert Gibbs” about the emails received by people who claimed they had not opted to receive emails from the White House and had not engaged in anyway with them. The response from the Robert Gibbs who was clearly uncomfortable with the line of questioning was just that he needed the email addresses of the people concerned to be able to check on the status of their subscription to the White House updates and did not speculate how these email addresses may have been added to the White House email database.

Whilst the emails sent by the White House were CAN-SPAM compliant. It was almost certainly unsolicited, in the US however this does not make the email illegal.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 does not require mailers to prove opt-in; instead they must provide the ability to opt-out and political emails are also excempt from the act.

The Answer:

The White House said Sunday night that it will change its e-mail sign-up procedures, making subscription clearer, after some recipients of a health-care e-mail complained that they had not asked to receive updates.

This is all very well and good, and its great to hear that the White House is improving its email practices. However wouldn’t the press conference have gone so much smoother if the White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs was able to say that the White House operated a double opt-in scheme? This would have removed any doubt that they had emailed someone who did not want to receive their emails.

A double opt-in scheme is when an email address is added to a list such as the White House list, the email address concerned receives an email with a link to click to verify that the owner of the email address does want to receive updates from the organisation concerned. Although common practice, many email senders still have not introduced double opt-in, potentially concerned that people won’t verify themselves as subscribers. The counter argument to this however, and one that Email Manual subscribe to, is that if people genuinely want to receive updates from you they will verify themselves when they receive an email from the organisation concerned.

What do you think? We would be interested in seeing your comments.