The London Institute of Mathematical Sciences is harshing my mellow - spam newsletter

Late last year "LIMS" the London Institute of Mathematical Sciences added me to a list to receive their newsletter.

At the bottom of the newsletter there was a link to change my subscription or unsubscribe. I'd never subscribed (nor heard of them, their website was unfamiliar) and wondered why on earth I'd been added. It is always possible that I've mistakenly signed up to something and can't initially assume that someone else is at fault.

While technically clicking unsubscribe should remove me, I'd argue (admittedly pedantically but for heaven's sake this is a maths organisation and you'd think they would appreciate the precision of my logical argument) by definition I cannot unsubscribe if I've never subscribed. So I asked how / why I'd been added. Below is a summary of the redacted communications which I'm adding here in case others google to find out why they've been added to LIMS' newsletter / mailing list.

My email address should never have been added to a mailing list / newsletter without my permission, so clicking 'unsubscribe' wouldn't have uncovered how that error was made in the first place. Sadly, as you'll see, none of the other efforts I've made have managed to unsubscribe me either. A friend has advised that I contact the ICO though I'm sure they'd say "Oh for heaven's sake just click Unsubscribe" ;)

LIMS joined Twitter (@London_Inst) this month, and sent me another newsletter to tell me. Hence this post.


1. 25 November 2018 (they first emailed me on 23rd Nov)

Subject:	Re: The London Institute becomes an Independent Research Organization, and other news
Date:	Sun, 25 Nov 2018 21:56:44 +0000
From:	Me
To:	London Institute

Hi - can you clarify when I signed up to receive this? I'm not familiar with your website but the option to Unsubscribe suggests that I must have subscribed at some point.

Thanks,
Jo

2. My second reply following up, on 29 November 2018

Subject:	Re: The London Institute becomes an Independent Research Organization, and other news
Date:	Thu, 29 Nov 2018 12:12:58 +0000
From:	Me
To:	London Institute

Just wondering what the status of this enquiry is, thanks, Jo

3. My third reply on 29 November 2018

Subject:	Re: The London Institute becomes an Independent Research Organization, and other news
Date:	Thu, 29 Nov 2018 15:28:14 +0000
From:	Me
To:	[Redacted]

Thanks [Redacted] - I don't think I've been to a talk there and the website wasn't familiar to me. I am just always wary of finding myself subscribed to things as it seems to happen a lot with an academic email address (mine, I mean).

Best wishes,
Jo

On 29/11/2018 15:23, [Redacted] wrote:

Dear Jo,

I have sent an email around the Institute to see whom you are connected to/know and take it from there. I assume you would remember if you came to a talk here?

Best wishes

[redacted]

4. My fourth reply following up on 10 Dec

Subject:	Re: The London Institute becomes an Independent Research Organization, and other news
Date:	Mon, 10 Dec 2018 17:09:56 +0000
From:	Me
To:	[Redacted]

Hi [Redacted]

Any news on this?

Thanks,
Jo

5. My fifth reply, to a new message

Subject:	Re: Happy Christmas from the London Institute
Date:	Tue, 11 Dec 2018 17:39:10 +0000
From:	Me
To:	London Institute

What is going on here? Who signed me up for this? If I signed myself up (I genuinely don't remember) when did I do that? I've randomly started receiving messages from you in late November having never knowingly communicated with you before. Why?

Thanks,
Jo






6. Their reply reassuring me that they'd asked for my details to be taken off their database - this was in response to #4

Subject:	Re: The London Institute becomes an Independent Research Organization, and other news
Date:	Fri, 14 Dec 2018 11:29:30 +0000
From:	Redacted
To:	Me

Dear Jo,

I am afraid I have no finite answers on this but have requested that you are removed from the database so you will receive no further updates or seminar notices from the London Institute.

Kind regards

[Redacted]

Didn't work ;)
Everything went quiet until April 2019

7. My sixth reply to a new newsletter

Subject:	Re: London Institute in Times Higher Education and other news
Date:	Fri, 5 Apr 2019 16:04:59 +0100
From:	Me
To:	London Institute

How is it that my email address is still on your mailing list despite assurances in December 2018 that it would be removed (see attached)? I had never knowingly heard of LIMS before your first email to me in November 2018 and still have no idea how or why my address was added in the first place.

Jo

8. Six months after that we begin again...

Subject:	Re: Follow our new Twitter account and see our range of research projects
Date:	Wed, 16 Oct 2019 19:03:52 +0100
From:	Me
To:	London Institute

Why am I receiving this?

Thanks
Jo

Because you haven’t opened an email in more than a year, your e-mail alerts have been cancelled

This isn't a post being snarky about Nature.com - it's just that they happened to send me this in December last year and it made me giggle and then wonder about people knowing what emails I have or haven't opened. I was reminded of it today and thought I'd dig it out.



I've done a bit of a series of blogposts recently ('fun with paranoia') on some of the various ways in which your data is shared, or links that you share may carry extra information about you. My favourite example is the one in which I searched for volunteering options local to me by putting in my postcode. The address for any page I looked at after that 'inherited' my postcode and I only noticed when I copied the link of an opportunity to share on Twitter.

When you click on a link in an e-lert type of email the webpage collects some information - it probably could work out who you are although I don't think anyone's particularly interested in that. I suspect the body of data is more useful for telling you how many people clicked on something.

Normally I'd never share this great long link (emphasis added)
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/bfi-statistical-yearbook-reports-stand-out-year-uk-film-2011?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20120816-bfi-news&utm_content=20120816-bfi-news+CID_3 [[alphanumeric gibberish redacted]] &utm_source=cm&utm_term=Read+more

This came from an e-lert from the BFI and is a rather fascinating page on the stats of film in the UK and the changing face of how we view films in Britain etc (also there is such a thing as the "BFI’s Research and Statistics Unit", I had no idea). Everything after '2011' in the long link text above is data about how I (although I can't tell if it's specifically 'I' or just generic to 'all who receive this email') reached the page. E-lerts report back to their owners the percentage of email recipients clicking on different sections. There's nothing particularly sinister in any of this, I just find it all quite interesting.

The link I'd share would be the pruned version http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/bfi-statistical-yearbook-reports-stand-out-year-uk-film-2011, much tidier.

Back to Nature though - it's true I didn't open their emails but I'm not certain that unsubscribing me is the best strategy (assuming it's not just a random spam email of course, it looks legit). Perhaps I check my emails on the way to work, clock that Nature have sent me something and then visit their page when I get to my work computer without using any of the links in the email... perhaps now that I no longer receive these notifications I no longer think to do this ;)