Freepay's statement about selling information

[quote144803c265]Gratis Internet Company Statement

Allegations made by the New York State Office of the Attorney General that Gratis Internet "sold" email addresses to Datran Media or other companies, and/or that these companies "purchased" personal user information from Gratis Internet are completely untrue.

Here are the facts Starting in June 2004, for a period of approximately six months, Gratis hired list management firm Datran Media to manage the logistics of marketing products and services via email to Gratis' own user base. After Gratis ended the contract with Datran at the end of 2004, Gratis briefly worked with two other list management companies, JDR and Jumpstart. These list management firms oversaw creative design and back-office support for Gratis' email marketing operations. The companies acted on Gratis' behalf to send promotional emails to its own users, and at no time ever engaged in a sale or purchase of data.

Appointing a specialized vendor to manage such "in house" marketing operations is a commonplace, industry-wide practice. It is analogous, for example, to a retailer outsourcing the logistics of a direct mail campaign to a vendor who creates the graphics, manages the mailing, and interfaces directly with the advertisers the retailer is promoting. The party designing those direct mail pieces, mailing them to consumers, and handling consumer responses is not the retailer - it is a vendor appointed by the retailer to manage that process, part of which involves the retailer giving the vendor access to the addresses of its customers. That's what happened here (between Gratis and its list managers) and it is a standard and totally lawful practice.

At all times, Gratis has maintained control and ownership of its user information and never, not once, profited from any sale of data. After Gratis ceased using Datran's services in December 2004, Datran (as they were contractually obliged) no longer had any access to any of Gratis' user data.

Gratis at no time in its history ever sold its list to anyone or allowed a company to purchase consumer data, nor has it ever considered doing so, nor will it ever in the future. Email marketing represented a small fraction (less than 1.5%) of its 2004 and 2005 revenues, and the company earned less than $35,000 from users in the state of New York from its practice of sending promotional emails.

Establishing and maintaining a bond of trust between Gratis and consumers is a cornerstone of its business. Gratis believes that its impressive growth in recent years is a direct reflection of the fact that, in all its dealings with consumers, the company has behaved in a trustworthy and responsible manner at all times and in all ways.[/quote144803c265]

http//www.gratisinternet.com/pressroom.html#

doesnt sound too bad then....

I agree... I'm going to wait and see before I give them a pass... however I will say this... fighting this case will cost Gratis a lot of money and I think users will suffer because of these alligations. Hopefully they have made the right investments and have money in place in the event of lawsuits and such... judging from their recent practice though... i don't believe this is the case. I hope I'm wrong... for my sake... and the sake of my free psp I"m "supposedly" getting from them.

I think we already are suffering because of the alligations. I think that all the new policies were put in because they were preparing for this. They needed to increase revenue to fight this thing.

that makes feel better. I bet spitzer wont get anywhere, then. at least we know that my state is trying to protect us from these things and by going after who they think is doing illegal sales of information and finding out the truth they are in the end helping us. though my damn ps3 account still isnt approved (

[quote4fbec2d32e="toiletpaper55"]doesnt sound too bad then....[/quote4fbec2d32e]

As if they'd simply come out and admit guilt?

Don't be so naive.

I hope they have enough evidence to prove these claims.

For one thing, I haven't received any negative massive spam e-mails or calls from any marketing group. Nor was my physical mailbox receive "any" unwanted mail.

I would be very interested to know if anyone was actually affected by this incident.

I [b5280c14f5a]highly[/b5280c14f5a] doubt it.