January 30, 2004

google mail

Given the vague nature of the opt-out requirements in CAN SPAM, especially around the definition of who is the “sender” when you have third party commercial ads appearing in a message, I’m wondering about the likelihood of Google actually getting into the “inserting ads in email for list publishers” business. Unless, of course, they’re planning on operating a centralized clearinghouse for opt-out processing. Which, while theoretically interesting on paper, would be nearly impossible to manage in practice. (There are just too many actors, and the landscape too rocky.) At any rate, their lawyers must be working overtime…