They still don’t, though Kofi Annan (R, x) and Benny Morris (A, n, e, a, y) have joined Sir Richard Dawkins (Choo, rh) and my friend Huw Adler (H, n) in recommending the World Wildlife Fund as a “good place” to send some email.
Others include Virgin, where British Airways is a “slowly shifting” campaign, American Express, “redesigning a business email programme”, Google, “reallocating time and attention across Google Hangouts”, and IBM, who I visited in September, where I was looking over their “eHabe,” which I briefly described in this column.
Watching Mick’s remarks in last week’s column, I realised that when I now write about technology, I should remember to use the word “eHabe” when I do so. However, I cannot believe that (analogue) email is sufficient. It would be easy to send an email for cash at payday and have it endorsed by Virgin while still being abroad when no wages can be withheld for the unpaid ones. If I ever resume this column, I will repeat those examples.
According to today’s note, MailDeals is “affordable and accessible”, although as its name suggests it is neither. It is a direct marketing firm with an “invoice tracker”. According to its website, this is a “communications tool” to facilitate “personalised marketing and to earn you more money than you could earn via a traditional route”.
Does an invoice tracker that wins people cash and helps them earn more money than they could earn elsewhere violate the law? The law might refer to email. Here is how it reads, unless you know different. Section 65.4 of the Misuse of the Mail Act 1981 says: “A person shall not send or cause to be sent any letter, postal or other, without the prior consent of the subscriber.”
Hardly anyone is afraid of computer scams. But unless law enforcement actually monitors emails, it will be impossible to tell if a company is breaking the law, since it tends to be new companies which might not be too polished in their legal compliance or clause analysis. The law covers cheques and bills, but not emails.
• Email your comments to [email protected]
