Unwanted spam

[Tzael]

I have started receiving unsolicited emails from EI Interactive advertising their services through a newsletter. Ok first of all I do have accounts on the NA shards, so you might expect that I would receive Horizons newsletters sent to the email address associated with those accounts.

Unfortunately for EI it is not the email address associated with my North American accounts that I am receiving this 'Game Intruder Official Newsletter #3' through. It is the email address used for my European Horizons account.

I hope EI understand the implications of EU law and specifically the data protection act. There is a very good reason why GN could not give EI personal customer data without a customer's prior consent. I do believe the law was broken when GN gave this data to Tulga, and I get the impression that GN had their wrists slapped and are keen to avoid further legal wrangling. Nevertheless it is important for EI to understand where they are breaking the law.

I am not simply going to say "this is the email address that I am receiving unsolicited emails through, please remove it from your mailing lists". That gives EI an easy option and does absolutely nothing to benefit others who may be affected. It is also not how the law works in the EU regarding unsolicited mailings.

Please verify your mailing lists EI. I will let a single wrong-doing slide, don't let it happen again.

[Peaches]

Legal issues, accusations, such as this, do NOT belong on the boards.

[Tzael]

I disagree Peaches, these forums are a means for us to communicate amongst ourselves and with EI. Contacting EI directly will do little to resolve the problem since it has been demonstrated that public outcry is the only means of demonstrating the need for a resolution.

Regardless of my viewpoint, this is not an accusation. This is a matter of fact. EI has used information for marketing purposes that they do not have permission to use in this manner.

I'm all for resolving this amicably Peaches. Please don't turn this into something bigger than it needs to be by blowing it out of proportion.

[Phillip]

You couldn't PM Nagafen for this? It seems he's been good at answering your questions and it also appear that you appreciated his replies.

[IndyMan]

will you pm him with any good ideas you have for anything ?

[Phillip]

Prob not since he's the marketing guy. I pm the other guys with my kick butt ideas.

[Ankua Daru]

Hmm, *checks email* nope figures no news letter. Are you sure EI is sending this junk to you? I have never received a newsletter from Horizons, but then again my isp may be catching them.
As for PM Nag about this sounds reasonable that you do send him a message so he knows. I bet you already did but probably have heard nothing back, so in that case I fully agree with making this public if private means are not working.

[Tzael]

Yeah Phillip I could've PM'd Nagafen about this. Then again how long would it be before someone else posts about it ? I'm guessing most people who have received this email thus far have paid no heed on the grounds that it tallies with their Horizons account email. In my case it was sent to an email address that EI have no permission to retain or use, it was not sent to the email address used for my existing NA accounts. I've said what needs to be said on the matter and I've said it publicly instead of trying to get somewhere with PMs, so I guess it's up to others to state their opinions now.

Hi Ankua, yeah I'm sure it's from EI, here's the header from the email :

From: "Nicholas Dobbins" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Game Intruder Official Newsletter Issue #3
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 15:41:20 -0700

[Phillip]

Yeah Phillip I could've PM'd Nagafen about this. Then again how long would it be before someone else posts about it?

So that's why you post this, because someone else may post it sometimes in...time?

I see. My apologies I must have misunderstood you.

[Varangaard]

Popping in to mention that I have received such an email as well. Now if EII is not aware of this already - I doubt they aren't - they have a bunch of European accounts in their customer database as per one-time transfer between TG and GN. When you send mail to your NA customers, it will also reach certain EU players. Perhaps you could add a simple opt-out checkbox to HZ login site (I can log in just fine to check the box since your database has my EU login). As I am no longer a HZ player, and consequently not a customer of EII, I'm not really interested in newsletters. And, once you get the customer and subscription database working, it should be a simple matter to add some code so letters are not sent to inactive subscriptions.

[Ankua Daru]

Ack game intruder!! lol I was looking at that site earlier laughing to myself about how the forums were down saying to myself "It figures". I also had a good laugh at the 14 day trial ad for HZ thinking now how are you supposed to play with no character creation. I say let the world know of such events.

Free Nelson Mand.. oh ya he is free um.. buy peeps they are tasty!

[Theros Ironfeld]

Australian players are recieving this as well ( edit cancelled h.z account email addys i might add)
email is labeled as [email protected] from a nick dobbins
not saying anything else bout this.

[snickel]

Received this as well -- and cannot remember agreeing to do so when I created the account.

I would like to see an official statement on this matter, therefore I think Tzael is right to post this here.

[Luca Mazzasogni]

I came here since I received the same newsletter last night just to check if others received it as well and I believe this thread confirms it.

Just a quick statement from my side to clear a few things quickly:

- There was NO transfer of account information from Game Network to Tulga Games

- Back in December 2005 we agreed with David Bowman that it might have been worth to try again with the Transatlantic Accounts and we started working on them (actually they did, since it would have been their task and they were given proper accesses to complete the work). This would have required a link between the two account databases (European and North American) to work.

- We haven't heard from them anymore until Tulga Games sent that newsletter to the whole European customers base advertising the North American shards. Questioned them about it, we never received a reply.

- After the sale I've been confirmed by David Bowman himself (after months of silence, broken only after the sale) that this shouldn't have happened and he confirmed to me that all the information were "destroyed" after the mail was sent, apologizing for what happened. I still have the logs of the chat with him, but I won't post them unless necessary (as they contain reserved information).

- Quite obviously the fact that the information were removed was not true and the information were still present and transfered to EI Interactive

- EI Interactive has been informed immediately about this after the sale and we discussed the issue with them for weeks.

- EI Interactive agreed to work to remove the information to prevent any further issue, this was part of the plan to perform the transition of EU players unto their service (to be more precise this should have been the first step to be completed).

That's all I can comment at this moment...

[Fridlekh]

Well, Game Intruder is run by EI so technically they didn't sell or give your info to any 3rd party, they just sent you spam. :P (They sent me spam too.)

Still, I don't know enough about the drama revolving around Unity to comment on mails sent to EU subscribers ...

[Sigi]

Well, Game Intruder is run by EI so technically they didn't sell or give your info to any 3rd party, they just sent you spam. :P (They sent me spam too.)

Still, I don't know enough about the drama revolving around Unity to comment on mails sent to EU subscribers ...

This IS about Unity people who get the email. And we are still run by GN. NOT EI.

So not only you don't know enough about the Unity Drama (lol, I can see the movie? bestselling book etc.. It's not that much of a drama eally) you obviously didn't read/understood this thread.

[Mairynn Nalnair]

I recived 2 mails fro EII one for my original account created back in february 2004 and one for my spare account created january 2006.

I tried to use the log on from my second account to create and log on to Chaos a few weeks before EII took over HZ.
I was unable to do so.

Account name and password not found.

Today have I been able to use the infomation and create a Trial account, if this means that GN have continued working on the account merger up to shortly before they sold HZ I dont know.

I just cant find any other way to explain where they have gotten my log on information from.


Since I have never before used that email adresss to anything related to EII must they have obtained it from GN.

Personaly I have no problem with that since i see the attemped account merger as an attemp to improve things for the Unity players.

Others rather obviusly looks at it differently. If this as tzael indicates is a violation of the legislation we have within the EEC I do not know.

However EII realy should check up un such matters before sending out such things.

[Tzael]

Thankyou for the information Luca. I feel better knowing that GN did not deliberately hand over any of our personal information.

EI needs to understand that the majority of EU countries only support opt-in policies for mailing lists, not an opt-out policy. There are still a number of countries around the world where opt-out mailings are perfectly legitimate so the best advice I can offer is for EI to utilise rules when sending mailings out, ie considering country; also provide a clear indication of where people can opt in and out of the mailings.

[Rhialto]

I also received it!

I hope this issue can be dealt with maturely and consequently these mails are stopped immediately or a way to remove yourself from this list is made possible so everyone can decide for himself if they want these mails.

[Tsarevna]

I'm thinking a good solution would be to have "opt-out" options (like checked/unchecked boxes) in your account page once you login.

As soon as you uncheck the box that says "I want special offers and newsletters!" you stop getting the offers and newsletters. Unchecking the box would instantly take you off the mailing list.