Some of you may know that I recently went to see My Chemical Romance in concert (it was fab by the way). One of their support acts mentioned that if we went to their website we could download their latest single for free. As I am always inbterested in new bands I thought i would take advantage of their offer.
I went to the band's website and the first thing that pops up is directions to download their single. Great, that's easy I thought. The first problem was that I had to sign up to their mailing list to obtain the link. OK, the band has to build a list and I can always unsubscribe.
I got the email with the link and clicked on it. This is where I started getting annoyed. To get to that link I was invited to disclose my location so more relevant news on gigs etc could be sent to me. The most worrying part was that they had pre-filled in the location based on my IP address.
Now you have to remember that this band is going to mainly appeal to teens so they are going to make up a large percentage of sign-up requests. I really do not feel it ethical that they ask for location information - or am I being too protective?
Lastly, on the email with the link there was no way to unsubscribe at this point. So now I have to either reply to the email and hope that they unsubscribe or wait for the first newsletter and hope there's a link on that.
Here's a few pointers I want to pass on to you.
- If you are going to ask for email or other information when offering free stuff that's fine as long as it is clearly stated.
- Do ensure that you make it easy for someone to unsubscribe if they wish to from the very start.
- Don't be creepy and insist on location information before allowing claim of free stuff.
