Kesher Talk

In principle, Jewish tradition does not frown on promotion. It is legitimate for a seller to try and make his product known to potential buyers, and to inform them of the benefits of his wares.

... However, we must take care that selling doesn't turn into harassment. ...

... It's hard to provide a clear definition of when targeted marketing turns into spam. But the two sources from Jewish law can help provide some context. In both cases, the criterion that makes the approach permissible is not a desire to make a deal per se but rather the existence of a basic interest. A customer who has some interest in making a purchase is not wasting the salesperson's time, and a person who has expressed even a possible interest in selling his property may be approached by someone with an interesting offer.

By the same token, a recipient considers an e-mail to be "spam" not because he doesn't want to buy the product but rather because he is not interested in even learning about the product. It's not only a waste of his time to read the message; it's even a waste of time to go to the trouble of deleting it.

Based on this criterion, a mass mailing would be problematic if it is for something that relatively few people are interested in learning about and no efforts are made to target specifically those individuals who would express interest.

It goes without saying that the message should not be misleading, tricking the recipient into reading the message by camouflaging it as a message which is of interest, such as a business or personal communication, winning a contest, etc. This violates the prohibition of "geneivat da'at" or misleading others.

It also goes without saying that the mailing should not violate the law. Very often middlemen of the kind you mention use illegal techniques to evade anti-spam efforts of Internet service providers. For example, they use a false return address. When you use the services of such an agent, Jewish law views you as an accomplice to the crime.

posted by William @ 2/06/2004 08:52:00 AM