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Unsolicited Emails from Australian Labor

I just sent an email abuse report to MailChimp, documenting the unsolicited emails I have been receiving from the Australian Labor party.  I understand that one of their members may have accidentally entered the wrong email address once, but it is unfair that they have subscribed me to 8 separate email lists so far, and I have to take the time to unsubscribe from each one – when I never subscribed in the first place.  This is illegal under the SPAM ACT 2003.

Here is the email I sent them:

Hi

In Australia we have 2 main political parties, one of them being Labor. They’ve recently been voting for a new leader. I’m not a member of the party, but I’ve received an email from Labor people almost every week for the last month – all from different lists, and I have unsubscribed every single time, choosing the “I never subscribed” option.

5 of the 8 lists I received unsolicited email from were hosted by MailChimp, the remainder by NationBuilder (good luck competing! As a web developer I like your product better)

EMAIL 1
Subject: Party. Policy. People.
Sender: MailChimp
X-campaignid: mailchimpd1d04c8e8a8375877ba044bc4.be6aae17ed

EMAIL 2
Subject: Why I’m Standing
Sender: NationBuilder

EMAIL 3
Subject: I want to make a difference
Sender: NationBuilder

EMAIL 4
Subject: Join Bill Shorten for a conversation with country members tonight
Sender: MailChimp
X-campaignid: mailchimp2a0336f66d93a2c444ff3d779.ed092fdc95

EMAIL 5
Subject: Make your vote count
Sender: NationBuilder

EMAIL 6
Subject: I’m supporting Bill
Sender: MailChimp
X-campaignid: mailchimpd1d04c8e8a8375877ba044bc4.1636a97be2

EMAIL 7
Subject: Labor eNews
Sender: MailChimp
X-campaignid: mailchimpb6a6fa942a4870ed76b06bc02.4f94c686b5

EMAIL 8
Subject: Thank you for your support
Sender: MailChimp
X-campaignid: mailchimp429f4375fe72549c8e09fe0fd.53fef0c08a

As you can see, the Australian Labor party is creating many different lists, and is subscribing my email address to each of them without my permission. I am assuming another Jason O’Neil entered an incorrect email address (this happens often), but as it stands I can only assume the Labor party is importing a bulk list of email addresses into MailChimp, and while I can unsubscribe from each individual mailing list, they will just create new lists and re-import my address.

Unsolicited email is illegal in Australia under the SPAM ACT 2003. I have attempted to contact them but was unable to resolve the issue, and I have received multiple emails since then.

I guess what I am asking:

– Can you contact the owners of these lists and remind them of their responsibilities under law and under your terms and conditions?

– Is there a way to prevent my address from being imported into new lists during a bulk import?

Thank you for your time!
Jason

Oh hi there 👋 Thanks for reading!

Sign up to receive an email when I write a new post in my "Personal" category.

I don’t spam! This is only used for sending updates from this blog. I don't share your email except with MailPoet which we use to send the email.

5 replies on “Unsolicited Emails from Australian Labor”

Jason, thanks for the nice words about NationBuilder, and sorry to hear you’re receiving unsolicited emails! While subscription lists are managed by our individual customers, if you want to opt-out of ALL emails handled by NationBuilder, we can help with that, and we’re also able to contact our customers on your behalf if you send us details.

Hi Adriel

Thanks for the comment! I’m sure your product is great (which is why so many are choosing to use it), but if there is a global opt-out I’d appreciate it. I had a brief look around your site and a brief google search, but couldn’t find it.

Could you send me a link?
My email is [email protected] if you need to unsubscribe me manually

Thanks!
Jason

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