wgnoyes Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 Now this is an interesting idea! Email something out to uspsa members and anyone else who wishes to subscribe on a periodic basis with interesting articles and news events. Specific link to this issue available here http://www.multibriefs.com/briefs/uspsa/uspsa050814.php, and a more generic archive link is also available here at http://www.multibriefs.com/briefs/uspsa/, and along the right side list of links on uspsa6.org. I didn't subscribe for this; it just showed up in my inbox. If you wish to subscribe for future issues, please visit here: http://multibriefs.com/optin.php?uspsa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sperman Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 I got that last night, and I agree, it is an excellent idea. Hopefully they can do something similar to communicate rules changes and the like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbgaynor Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 I just found this sitting in my spam box (known email marketing spammer, reply to a third party address, bug tracking in all links - trusting this email to be legit is like trusting a third party, out of state, payroll check). Not happy with my personal data being handed off to a low reputation third party. Couldn't find a privacy policy on the website where they said they could do this (a no-no under California law). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flatland Shooter Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 I got two of those e-mails. Did not know what they were so hit "delete". I guess I'll take a look at the next one. Too bad USPSA didn't give us a heads up. Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sperman Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 I just found this sitting in my spam box (known email marketing spammer, reply to a third party address, bug tracking in all links - trusting this email to be legit is like trusting a third party, out of state, payroll check). Not happy with my personal data being handed off to a low reputation third party. Couldn't find a privacy policy on the website where they said they could do this (a no-no under California law). This is the closest thing I can find, from the USPSA by-laws: 10.4 Confidentiality: All financial information, employee information, membership lists and similar matters of this corporation shall remain confidential. All open session Boardroom discussions shall remain confidential until the minutes of those discussions are approved for dissemination by a majority of the Board except and unless otherwise approved by a majority of the Board. Executive session discussions shall be confidential. No Officer or Director shall supply copies or disseminate such confidential information to any third party without the written consent or by resolution of the Board of Directors, except as otherwise provided in these Bylaws. This prohibition shall not apply to disclosure of such confidential information to the professional advisers of the Officers or Directors, as the case may be, although such professional advisers shall then keep it confidential. This prohibition shall not apply to disclosure to any governmental agencies to which information shall be required for the operation of the corporation. Members serving as affiliated club contact, corporate officers, employees, Section Coordinators and Area Directors may have their names phone numbers, E-mail address, City and States published at various times and places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outerlimits Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Never got any. Address correct in uspsa DB, so it ain't going to everybody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Hayden Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 There's a way to sign up for it as well.. http://multibriefs.com/optin.php?uspsa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Hayden Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Not sure how to link the current one... at the bottom of this one, are previous links May 8th: http://multibriefs.com/briefs/USPSA/USPSA050814.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted May 16, 2014 Author Share Posted May 16, 2014 http://www.multibriefs.com/briefs/uspsa/uspsa051514.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbgaynor Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 (edited) I just found this sitting in my spam box (known email marketing spammer, reply to a third party address, bug tracking in all links - trusting this email to be legit is like trusting a third party, out of state, payroll check). Not happy with my personal data being handed off to a low reputation third party. Couldn't find a privacy policy on the website where they said they could do this (a no-no under California law). This is the closest thing I can find, from the USPSA by-laws: 10.4 Confidentiality: All financial information, employee information, membership lists and similar matters of this corporation shall remain confidential. All open session Boardroom discussions shall remain confidential until the minutes of those discussions are approved for dissemination by a majority of the Board except and unless otherwise approved by a majority of the Board. Executive session discussions shall be confidential. No Officer or Director shall supply copies or disseminate such confidential information to any third party without the written consent or by resolution of the Board of Directors, except as otherwise provided in these Bylaws. This prohibition shall not apply to disclosure of such confidential information to the professional advisers of the Officers or Directors, as the case may be, although such professional advisers shall then keep it confidential. This prohibition shall not apply to disclosure to any governmental agencies to which information shall be required for the operation of the corporation. Members serving as affiliated club contact, corporate officers, employees, Section Coordinators and Area Directors may have their names phone numbers, E-mail address, City and States published at various times and places. So it is quite possible that this violates the bylaws also. At the very least members should have access to any confidentiality agreement that was signed with the marketing company. The bylaws do not however statisy California law with respect to online privacy for a "clear and obvious link to a privacy policy." For anyone who doubts here is the link to the marketing company page where they try and market your eyeballs: http://mk.multibriefs.com/MediaKit/Audience/uspsa Edited May 16, 2014 by rbgaynor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbgaynor Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 Never got any. Address correct in uspsa DB, so it ain't going to everybody. It's being processed by a marketing company and mailed by a bulk email company - quite likely that it went straight to spam (that's where I found it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chills1994 Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 (edited) I received the Downrange email even though my membership has been expired for over a year. <rolls eyes> EDIT: so that begs the question: How many other former members got the same email and did any of them go back in and renew their memberships after receiving this email? I used to do that sort of thing, bulk email, for about 200 people at my club via mailchimp.com . Best part of it all... It was free. Edited May 16, 2014 by Chills1994 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Is it possible that someone hijacked the USPSA logo and USPSA press releases for this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbgaynor Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 (edited) Is it possible that someone hijacked the USPSA logo and USPSA press releases for this? That was my first thought also. I contacted HQ right away with that concern but they admitted they're behind it. Edited May 18, 2014 by rbgaynor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sperman Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Jay posted this on the Area 6 facebook page: From USPSA Home Office:There will be another issue (of DownRange) released tomorrow as it is a weekly news digest being produced by and for USPSA. We control 100% of the content and receive a portion of the ad revenue. We've an agreement in place with Multiview, the company who also handles the ads on our website. We have not sold our member's data and it will be used for no other purposes than this brief. Multiview does work with a lot of organizations such as the NSSF to help generate non-dues revenue. They do all the legwork. We submit announcements and noteworthy items of our own and they augment those with news stories from other similar outlets. This will help us to better communicate with our membership at no additional cost, generate ad revenue to fund other programs and improvements and because Multiview will place our content in other newsletters, we will gain added exposure at no additional expense. http://multiview.com/about There is no expense incurred by USPSA for this brief and other than providing them with content, there is no labor. Members may unsubscribe at any time and we have veto power over the entire brief each week. They send the final version to Marketing Director, Chris Taylor and he sends to me for final approval. This first one was a bit rushed, but we'll continue to improve and refine it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbgaynor Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 (edited) Jay posted this on the Area 6 facebook page: That NSSF uses MultiView is irrelevant to the facts in this case. NSSF may have acted ethically - they may have disclosed that they're selling the information or their list may be opt-in. NSSF may have acted unethically and said they wouldn't do this and then did it anyway. Either way it doesn't matter one tiny bit to this discussion about the USPSA and what they did. Not one tiny bit. The argument that USPSA isn't paying anything doesn't make this better - it makes it clearer that they sold our information to a marketing company (http://multiview.com/about) for services and and a share of revenue. I'm surprised that they would still be planning to mail tomorrow given that they have been informed that the use of this information may violate California law (with both criminal and civil penalties), and the fact that the list has been mis-represented to advertisers (liability?). Edited May 18, 2014 by rbgaynor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Sold our information? Maybe...... I'm reading is as they've hired a marketing company to create and distribute a newsletter around select items that USPSA would like to publicize...... Both parties are being paid under a revenue sharing agreement. Multiview, who distributes the newsletter in fact has a privacy policy on their website -- though I don't know if it contains the elements required by California law. I guess I'm missing what exactly USPSA did wrong here...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdpaz Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Sold our information? Maybe...... I'm reading is as they've hired a marketing company to create and distribute a newsletter around select items that USPSA would like to publicize...... Both parties are being paid under a revenue sharing agreement. Multiview, who distributes the newsletter in fact has a privacy policy on their website -- though I don't know if it contains the elements required by California law. I guess I'm missing what exactly USPSA did wrong here...... I'm also not seeing the problem. To me, it appears that Multiview has agreed to create and send a USPSA newsletter to email addresses supplied by USPSA in return for the rights to sell advertising in the newsletter. Other than selling advertising I don't see much difference between this and the mailing of Front Sight, which is likely done by a mailing house using names & address furnished by USPSA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles Bond Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Is it possible that someone hijacked the USPSA logo and USPSA press releases for this? No. USPSA is a partner in the effort. I do not believe that USPSA did anything wrong. If the information provided by Jay Corn is correct, we are doing a lot right. The better question is why did we need a partner in this. It is our email list. Most of the content consists of other stories linked from the net and Shooting Wire. Could we not as done just as well or better without multi view? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbgaynor Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Sold our information? Maybe...... I'm reading is as they've hired a marketing company to create and distribute a newsletter around select items that USPSA would like to publicize...... Both parties are being paid under a revenue sharing agreement. Multiview, who distributes the newsletter in fact has a privacy policy on their website -- though I don't know if it contains the elements required by California law. I guess I'm missing what exactly USPSA did wrong here...... They've clearly bartered personal information with MultiView in exchange for a cut in the profits from marketing that information. MultiView's privacy policy is irrelevant as it is between MultiView and user's of its website (i.e. the USPSA marketing team), not indviduals whose information is being used without ttheir knowledge. With their newsletters they track every link you click, every article you read, when you open the email, if you open the email, and who you forward it to. They can tie that back to an individual email name to build up a profile over time. If USPSA wants to do this fine - disclose it clearly (including the involved partners) and let people opt-in. Don't lie to me in the by-laws and decide what's "good for me." Who pays if advertisers find out that mailees are upset, that they were lied to about the mailing list being opt-in and want their money back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbgaynor Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Sold our information? Maybe...... I'm reading is as they've hired a marketing company to create and distribute a newsletter around select items that USPSA would like to publicize...... Both parties are being paid under a revenue sharing agreement. Multiview, who distributes the newsletter in fact has a privacy policy on their website -- though I don't know if it contains the elements required by California law. I guess I'm missing what exactly USPSA did wrong here...... I'm also not seeing the problem. To me, it appears that Multiview has agreed to create and send a USPSA newsletter to email addresses supplied by USPSA in return for the rights to sell advertising in the newsletter. Other than selling advertising I don't see much difference between this and the mailing of Front Sight, which is likely done by a mailing house using names & address furnished by USPSA. Magazine ads rarely result in any where near the amount of personally identifiable information being released to the advertiser as this newsletter could. Every link you click, every article you read is tracked by MultiView and can be linked backed to your email address (which in turn can reveal a lot about who you are). This is no where close to a magazine ad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbgaynor Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 Is it possible that someone hijacked the USPSA logo and USPSA press releases for this? The better question is why did we need a partner in this. It is our email list. Most of the content consists of other stories linked from the net and Shooting Wire. Could we not as done just as well or better without multi view? This I agree with. If USPSA had done this themselves I doubt many members would have been concerned. It's the involvement of an aggressive, 3rd party marketing company that wants to track every little thing that makes this troubling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parallax3D Posted May 19, 2014 Share Posted May 19, 2014 (edited) Regardless of who is actually sending out the emails, this should have been an OPT-IN arrangement, not opt-out!The privacy settings on the USPSA site cover being contacted for match results, alerts, and pre-match press releases. I see nothing authorizing them to send out monthly newsletters. (Unless they are going to claim that a monthy newsletter is a "USPSA Alert.") Edited May 19, 2014 by Parallax3D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted May 19, 2014 Author Share Posted May 19, 2014 (edited) Is it possible that someone hijacked the USPSA logo and USPSA press releases for this?No. USPSA is a partner in the effort. I do not believe that USPSA did anything wrong. If the information provided by Jay Corn is correct, we are doing a lot right.The better question is why did we need a partner in this. It is our email list. Most of the content consists of other stories linked from the net and Shooting Wire. Could we not as done just as well or better without multi view? No, we couldn't. You need to get a commercial email marketing service like this if you want to send out large amounts of emails like this. If you try to misuse your own ISP-provided email account with mass mailings, you quickly get flagged as a spammer and then you're screwed. Commercial email providers jump through all the hoops to avoid that problem for you. Edited May 19, 2014 by wgnoyes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgnoyes Posted May 19, 2014 Author Share Posted May 19, 2014 Regardless of who is actually sending out the emails, this should have been an OPT-IN arrangement, not opt-out! The privacy settings on the USPSA site cover being contacted for match results, alerts, and pre-match press releases. I see nothing authorizing them to send out monthly newsletters. (Unless they are going to claim that a monthy newsletter is a "USPSA Alert.") This is permission-based email. The case can be made that by giving them your email address at all, you gave USPSA permission to email you from time to time with items of interest. I don't see the problem and think it's largely imagined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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