Unwanted Emails in MyZone.

Randomness

Just wondering how certain groups/clubs etc can get access to my TCD email address. A few times this year I've gotten emails froms clubs etc. advertising nights out with no connection in the email them to any society I joined. Friends have gotten similar ones also.

Now I have just received one from the Yes to Coke campaign (this is not a thread for yes or no to coke) and it contains the very annoying line "We're sorry if the content of this e-mail, or the fact that you're receiving it, is annoying to you. We're not trying to sell you anything or to get you to come to some club night." - I don't care, but how did they get my email?

If your having a referendum are both registered sides allowed access to email lists or something? Also how are clubs getting students emails lists? I only ever use my TCD address for official college stuff so it's not like I've put this email address out there asking to be randomly emailed and surely societies I have joined can only use my email address to email me about societies stuff and I would hope they aren't giving email lists to clubs.

Maybe someone has an explaination.

Basically if someone is giving out my TCD email address without my consent if disagree with that, that is all.

PurpleFistMixer

Nice contribution there Prat Kenny.

I can't say I've had this happen to me (at first I thought you were going to give out about those endless "Learning Development Workshop" emails we get constantly), though a friend of mine said she gets emails from societies she never joined and that she didn't even use her tcd account to sign up to any societies in the first place.

pisslips

I get spam through the maths mailing list, like penis enlargement spam.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

I get Chaplaincy spam through my actual real life letterbox, which is a bit more annoying...

I get UCD Ents emails, which is a bit weird, but other than that haven't really got anything other than what I signed up for...

Mark200

I haven't been getting e-mails for stuff that I haven't signed up for I don't think. I didn't get the Yes to Coke one anyway...

Pet

I've gotten quite a few this year, advertising various club nights, and some mycandidate.ie **** too. I emailed them back to complain and enquire as to where the **** they got my email, but never got a response.

The most likely culprits, based on the content of the emails, are former SU Ents officers. Which one exactly, I don't know.

snappieT

SU has access to email lists, that's where your weekly email and the referendum stuff is coming from, I imagine.

I think that some societies (Phil/Hist sized) sell their email lists, or trade them for stuff for the society. I think this is where most of my club-based emails are coming from.

Prat Kenny

Prat Kenny wrote: »

Reminds me of this charming fellow:

patzer117

snappieT wrote: »

SU has access to email lists, that's where your weekly email and the referendum stuff is coming from, I imagine.

I think that some societies (Phil/Hist sized) sell their email lists, or trade them for stuff for the society. I think this is where most of my club-based emails are coming from.

I can tell you for certain the Hist has never sold any email list, though we were once asked for it. We keep it entirely to ourselves, and anyone can unsubscribe by replying.

It is a pain in the ass though, and I get plenty of emails from nightclubs and mycandidate etc. too. The easiest way to get email addresses is from societies who don't use BCC for sending emails, or from email forwards which contain your email address.

Ninja Edit: There is also peoplefinder where someone can find out your student email address based on your name, and possibly add you from there?

Unregistered.

I have got many of these emails also. I found out how they get the addresses back in February, as You'll see in the following short emails....

From: siobhanconmy@hotmail.com
To: **This contained a long list of emails, I took them out for privacy reasons etc. **
Subject:
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 23:24:06 +0000

hi ,
my name is Siobhan, manager of Turks Head parliament st dub 2,
i am looking for people to promote nights on tuesdays , wed, and thursdays and one friday per month.
our capacity is as you prob know 1400pax, we have had a great working relationship with trinity over the past and i look forward to the future.
due to large competition in the student night industry, i have come up with ideas which could provide student nights with more revenue.
I am always available to discuss drink promotions . If you would like to arrange a meeting in the future don't hesitate to contact me. thanks Siobhan Conmy 0861922062.

Me wrote:

How do you have my email address again?

i an an ex trinity graduate myself and friends with a rew ents officers, sorry if you dont want me to contact you , i wont in future, i apolygise siobhan

Then, before i could respond, she sent a final email saying...

facebook has all emails on it, open to all ents society

Boston

I remember an education officer put all the class rep emails in plan text on-line. He couldn't really grasp why I had a problem it.

Unregistered.

I remember seein this year's Class Rep emails on the tcdsu site a while ago. I've just logged on to the site to see if they were still there and I've just realise the scale of farcity of the site! Take a look at this paragraph I found on this page: http://tcdsu.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=99&Itemid=78

The Ents Officer and the Ents Crew provide regular entertainments to the members of the union. Freshers’ Week, RAG Week and the <snip> are just some examples of events that the union provides for your enjoyment. For information on upcoming events, visit www.tcdents.com.

Seems fine, but click on the www.tcdents.com link!!! :rolleyes:

ilovemybrick

What has occurred with email lists was not that any society turned over lists but that promoters, some of them internal and some external, join every society in the hope that one day an email list is not bcc-ed and thus the list is available. This coupled with some lists like the "ents cards" lists and specific club night lists being amalgamated and swapped around amongst the promoters email addresses are easy to get. I know some people who have 28000 emails on the lists for their nights, between DIT, TCD and UCD students and random punters as well.

I would like to add that requests for access to these lists are common in societies dealing with sponsors but as far as I know it doesn't happen.

Also the email which was sent out about the coke referendum was not from the official campaign.

JC 2K3

I got an email about a Muzik Paddy's day night, run by who else but our incoming Ents officer, Mick Birmingham.

Emailed them asking where they got my email address from and never got a reply.

There're some serious Data Protection Act violations going on with tcd emails.

snappieT

patzer117 wrote: »

I can tell you for certain the Hist has never sold any email list, though we were once asked for it. We keep it entirely to ourselves, and anyone can unsubscribe by replying.

That doesn't mean that a committee member didn't go and sell it privately.

For example, the LGBT mailing list has somehow (I know exactly how, who, and why [and am disgusted]) got out to a mailing list promoting PantiBar. It's one thing to spam, a whole other to distribute a list of people who are members of a sensitive society.

Unregistered.

JC 2K3 wrote: »

I got an email about a Muzik Paddy's day night, run by who else but our incoming Ents officer, Mick Birmingham.

Emailed them asking where they got my email address from and never got a reply.

Ditto! And more recently, I received one for Twisted Tuesdays @ Citibar, they didn't reply back to my email either.

If there were something to be done about it, would we be going to the venue, in this case The Citibar management, to tell 'em to do soemthin about it?

Victor

I don't get any spam from outside TCD.

I get enough useless e-mails from inside TCD. Do I really care that such-and-such common room won't be available between 4-6pm?

Not impressed with the departmental secretary cc'ing the entire class instead of using the list.

Boston

Victor wrote: »

I don't get any spam from outside TCD.

I get enough useless e-mails from inside TCD. Do I really care that such-and-such common room won't be available between 4-6pm?

Not impressed with the departmental secretary cc'ing the entire class instead of using the list.

Given the trouble I had getting mailing privileges to a list before, it's possible CC'ing was here only option. Still she could have Bcc'ed

Victor

Boston wrote: »

Given the trouble I had getting mailing privileges to a list before, it's possible CC'ing was here only option. Still she could have Bcc'ed

What irony then that some post-grads have access to the mailing list and that all the "spammy" e-mails come from the mailing lists.

pisslips

I was a teaching assistant this year, had access to about 120 e-mails, which I didn't really want or need.

Jonathan

Victor wrote: »

I don't get any spam from outside TCD.

I get enough useless e-mails from inside TCD. Do I really care that such-and-such common room won't be available between 4-6pm?

Not impressed with the departmental secretary cc'ing the entire class instead of using the list.

Are you a student in TCD?

Victor

jmccrohan wrote: »

Are you a student in TCD?

Of course not. :eek:

I'm a postgrad.

Jonathan

Victor wrote: »

Of course not. :eek:

I'm a postgrad.

With a post count like that, I presume you are working hard :P

jamesnp

Are you sure they're not facebook emails? I get a lot of crap from all over the place, but it's usually through facebook groups and the like. I've gotten all those ones about the Coke thing from Rob Kearns through Facebook.

I remember, I think when I was a JF, peoplefinder.tcd.ie used to cover students as well as staff and that it had to be taken offline because of people harvesting email addresses from it. I believe it was a candidate for the SU elections that did it - it was looked on as a very serious offence and I think an example was made out of him/her. Certainly it was fresh in my mind when I was working on the Cumann Gaelach mailing list this year and data protection was our top priority.

In the Cumann Gaelach we add a line at the bottom of each mailing with your membership information and also provide opt-in/out features on the website:

Tá tú ag fáil an r-phoist seo toisc gur ball an Chumainn Ghaelaigh thú.
DO SHONRAÍ BALLRAÍOCHTA
D'ainm: surname, firstname
D'Uimhir Bhaill: XXXX
Do R-phost TCD: email@tcd.ie

I think that something along the same lines should be made compulsory for all societies, as well as proper opt out mechanisms. I joined the Phil in my jf year and have tried to opt out of their mailing at least once a term since - BUT, I still get that mail of totally and utterly irrelevant news every Sunday evening, without fail!

Even with all our opt in/out features, we've had one or two very irate emails from absolute eejits, accusing us of spamming. But, we just have to, very calmly, try and get it into their thick skulls that they signed up and therefore, even though it is a bulk mailing, it's not unsolicited!!! And then point them to the unsubscribe page.

Ah well...

Randomness

I think there is a lot of dodgey stuff going on with giving out emails etc. Nothing should come into my TCD email inbox cept official college stuff and societies I joined.

I object to people, whoever they are, throwing my email address around.

I replied to the "yes to coke" with a where did you get this address, but of course no response, what sort of come back does one have in this instance? For all I know that account is now consigned to Gmail-land and the person who set it up is drinking Coke in one of the SU shops.