Were Barack Obama and the White House spamming Americans?

You may have heard the brew-ha-ha about the Obama administration sending an email marketing campaign out to millions of recipients last week regarding the health care reform. During a press conference Fox News reporter Major Garret asked why the White House is sending unsolicited email to people who have not opted-in to receive email from the administration. Apparently he got one of these emails with the subject line reading "Something Worth Forwarding".


According to CAN-SPAM, the subject line should relate to the content of the email. The subject line "Something Worth Forwarding" crosses the line and does not really describe the email content.

So as it turns out, the White House responded that they are going to redo their email rules and only send email to people who request it. An Obama spokesperson said:

“We are implementing measures to make subscribing to e-mails clearer, including preventing advocacy organizations from signing people up to our lists without their permission when they deliver petition signatures and other messages on individual’s behalf.”

(via Vertical Response)