In recent months, challenges have arisen for marketers who are working feverishly to protect the integrity of their suppression files. When the FTC passed the CAN-SPAM Act, requiring mailers to share suppression files, many files were passed between advertisers and affiliates in plain text. While it is certainly a best practice for publishers to scrub a send file against an advertiser’s list, files in plain text format can quickly become targets of suppression list abuse. Sharing suppression files without any sort of encryption technology implementation places marketers in a vulnerable position.

Encryption technology such as MD5 hashing has evolved as a way to protect the consumer data contained in email suppression files. Encrypting suppression file data has also become a commonplace best practice for marketers interested in complying with email laws and protecting their brand reputation and valuable consumer data. After all, one of the easier ways to find your name on an ISP’s blacklist is by having your brand or company associated with mailing to a suppression file. The good news is, there are effective, feasible tools for securing consumer data and managing suppression lists. LashBack recommends using UnsubCentral’s solutions for suppression list management and distribution.

Protecting suppression files has never been a more pressing issue, as concerns about consumer privacy increase and the definition of personal identity information or PII broadens. In the near future, MD5 hash and encryption could very well become mandatory rather than simply best practices. The FTC is beginning to view the privacy of consumer email data in the same way it views credit card numbers and social security information, and will likely require it to be protected in the same manner.

Part Two of this post coming soon…