A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

Chapter 4  E‑environment

Viral email marketing

One widespread business practice that is not covered explicitly in the PECR law is ‘

viral 

 marketing

’ (as discussed in Chapter 3 and reviewed in Chapter 9, p. 435).

Several initiatives are being taken by industry groups to reassure web users about threats 

to their personal information. The first of these is TRUSTe (

www.truste.org

), sponsored by 

IBM and with sites validated by PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG. The validators will 

audit the site to check each site’s privacy statement to see whether it is valid. For example, a 

privacy statement will describe:

● 

how a site collects information;

● 

how the information is used;

● 

who the information is shared with;

● 

how users can access and correct information;

● 

how users can decide to deactivate themselves from the site or withhold information from 

third parties.

A UK accreditation initiative aimed at reassurance formerly coordinated by the Internet 

Media in Retail Group is ISIS, a trade group for e-retailers (Internet Shopping Is Safe) 

Viral marketing

In an online context, 

‘Forward to a friend’ 

email used to transmit 

a promotional message 

from one person 

to another. ‘Online 

word‑of‑mouth.’

inaccurate. However, sale should still occur even if the cookies are blocked or deleted, 

so the main consequence is that the ROI of online advertising or  pay‑  per‑  click market‑

ing may look lower than expected. In affiliate marketing, this phenomenon may benefit 

the marketer in that payment may not need to be made to the third party if a cookie 

has been deleted (or blocked) between the time of original clickthrough and sale.