Spam is Spam: Keeping The Reports Away

We all hate it. Even those who send it hate spam. And when most of us receive it we do exactly what we should: report it. The problem is, what I,, as a sender, consider to be spam is not the same as what you, as a receiver, consider to be spam. Case in point, Map My Ride.

I love Map My Ride. It’s an Android, iPhone, and Blackberry app which uses your phones GPS to map bike rides, giving you wonderful stats like speed, distance, calories burned, energy outputted, and graphs climbs and elevation. All in all, its an incredibly useful app.

Recently they updated their site and app, increasing user friendliness and enhancing features. In the process I also suddenly noticed something in my email:

 

Something struck me wrong about this. Why are they advertising to me? Did I click something at some point in the registration process? Did I “not opt out” while creating my account?

Going through the registration process again it seems that the latter.

Yep, looks like a hidden opt out. A common, if questionable, tactic. I know I am always trying to uncheck this stuff, and when I “miss one” and start getting email, I consider that spam.  And in this case it’s not even classic “soft marketing”, they’re specifically trying to sell me products. They provide a one click unsubscribe, so its probably not a big deal, but at the same time you have to wonder whether you should consider this underhanded. Is it enough to bring the ire of the spam button? They better hope not.