Anti-Spam Policy
Sender reputation with the ISPs is a significant factor in achieving Hiya Mail's excellent delivery rates. As a result we guard our reputation vigorously. We monitor blacklists and our abuse accounts 24/7. We can identify who is causing us delivery problems or attracting complaints easily. Sending an unsolicited email to a person with whom you have no relationship is unacceptable. Sending an unsolicited email to an entire list of people you don't know is not tolerated, as it likely to cause our systems to be blocked by various ISPs.
Feedback Loops with ISPs
We're on feedback loops (FBL) and reporting systems with ISPs and anti-spam organizations. When a recipient clicks their "This is Spam" button in their email program, a FBL report is sent to us. We analyze the data, trace it back to the sender that caused the complaint, remove the recipient who was the source of the complaint from the sender's list, and track future complaints about that campaign. If complaints exceed a reasonable threshold based on list size, we take appropriate action (which sometimes means permanently shutting down a Hiya Mail account) to keep our servers clean and off blacklists. Such occurrences are rare as unlike other ESPs our focus is on serving trusted businesses of a certain size and we manually qualify all new accounts.
If you send Emails to a list, and you get an unusual amount of SPAM complaints (more than 1 out of 1,000), ISPs will begin blocking future emails from your company. They will also request that Hiya Mail shut down your account. If you don't have proof that each recipient on your list has opted-in to receive your emails, or otherwise meets the above requirements, don't load them onto Hiya Mail platform.
- If you are sending your first campaign to an old list it is likely that many recipients will not remember you. As a result they will report you for spamming. As a courtesy please remind them of who you are, and how they got on your list.
- Clean your customer list before you import. Remove any addresses older than 6 months. Bad addresses lead to bouncebacks. Too many bouncebacks, and ISPs block Hiya Mail's severs (and you). Your Hiya Mail account will be shut down if you import an old list that gets too many bounces.
- Don't directly import your entire Outlook Address Book. Export them into a spreadsheet, then take some time to clean out bad addresses. If you import even one address by mistake, that person can get you blacklisted and shut down.
- If you are sending on behalf of a client please educate your client about responsible email marketing. They're depending on you to be the expert.
Permission, Permission, Permission
At Hiya Mail, we take permission very seriously. By creating an account and agreeing to our
Terms of Use, you are also agreeing to this anti-spam policy.
The following information is to be used as a guide only and does not supercede the laws or regulations that may apply to specific legal domiciles.
Spam is an email that is sent to someone who hasn't given their direct permission to contact them regarding the email's subject matter. The key to defining what is spam lies with our understanding of what constitutes permission.
To send email to anyone using Hiya Mail, you must have clearly obtained their permission. We consider qualifying methods for obtaining permission are as follows:
- An email newsletter subscription form on your web site.
- An opt-in checkbox within a form. This checkbox must not be checked by default, the person completing the form must willingly select the checkbox to indicate they want to hear from you.
- If someone completes an offline form like a survey or enters a competition, you can only contact them if it was explained to them that you would be contacting them by email AND they ticked a box indicating they would like you to contact them.
- Customers who have purchased from you within the last 2 years.
- If someone gives you their business card and you have explicitly asked for permission to add them to your list, you can contact them.
Permission is Perishable
If you haven't contacted via email within the last 12 months it strongly advised that you delete these people from your list. In fact, in some countries it is the law - a person's record must be deleted relative to each specific channel (e.g. mail or mobile) if they haven't been contacted via that channel within the previous 12 months, each channel being independent. Permission has a shelf-life - people will have changed their email address, won't recall giving their permission, or perhaps your communications will no longer be as relevant due changes in their circumstance
Unacceptable Usage of Hiya Mail
Don't use Hiya Mail to send anything offensive, to promote anything illegal, or to harass anyone. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Pornography or other sexually explicit Emails
- Emails offering to sell illegal substances
- Emails that violate the CAN-SPAM Law
Some industries send certain types of content that result in higher than normal bounce rates and abuse complaints, which in turn jeopardize the reputation and the associated deliverability of the Hiya Mail system.
We purposely vet and cherry-pick all our clients, respectfully refusing to provide account access to others. It is not because those businesses are necessarily spam offenders. Rather it is because there is a high-probability that they could be perceived to be. As a result we must deny such organizations use of the Hiya Mail system to ensure the highest delivery rates possible for all our customers. In order to prevent any damage we do not allow businesses that offer the following types of services, products, or content:
- Illegal goods or services
- Escort and dating services
- Get-rich-quick or work-at-home schemes
- Penny stock information and tips
- Gambling services, products or gambling education
- Multi-level marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Credit repair, get-out-of-debt content
- Pornography or nudity in content
- Adult novelty items or references in content
Anti-Spam Activities
As an email marketing service provider, we feel it's our duty to be extra vigilant about preventing spam related abuses.
As part of our reputation and deliverability management we engage in the following activities:
Reporting Abuse
All abuse reports taken very seriously at Hiya Mail. Reputation is as important to us as the technology behind our system. If you've received spam that you think came from a Hiya Mail user, let us know. Please report the fact that you received spam from what appears to be a Hiya Mail user to us by using this
reporting page
Report User Abuse
Every campaign sent from Hiya Mail has an embedded Campaign Tracking ID (CID) in the email's header that makes it easy for recipients to report suspected spam. You can view this by choice the Long Header or Extended Header options in your email client.
Find out how to submit a CID to our abuse desk.
If the campaign you received does not contain a CID, it didn't come from Hiya Mail. Every email sent via the Hiya Mail platform is embedded with a CID and it is impossible to circumvent this process.
