Do Podcasts mean more spam?

Have you been receiving marketing emails from companies offering podcast transcription, or community software for your podcast. Curiously, they’re coming to an email address you only use in your RSS feed for your podcast. 

3 Nov, 2022

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Rss feeds

Did we ask for this? 

The <itunes:owner> tag is used by podcast directories like those run by Apple, Spotify and Google to help you claim your podcast. The email needs to be present in the feed, 

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Rss feeds

Some companies help

Companies like PressHunt and Listennotes have a massive database of emails , which these companies sell. This is only possible if they scrape RSS feed data 

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Are marketing emails illegal

The US, the CAN-SPAM Act requires you to include a clear opt-out link. The penalty for sending infringing email is up to $16,000 per individual email.  

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What happens next?

Domain-name registration companies have now added their own privacy services from.  WHOIS and ICANN organisations that manages domain-name systems, has also proposed redactions in public information .

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