The following email received from George Mason University is an example of the University of Florida ENGINE database program failing to implement basic email etiquette and best practices such as VERIFICATION of EMAIL ADDRESSES before inclusion in its database.†

The University of Florida ENGINE database program may be in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act and, accordingly, a formal legal complaint regarding its email practices has been filed with the Federal Trade Commission as Report Number 127420581.

The University of Florida ENGINE database program:
1| uses and disseminates email addresses without either an implicit or explicit OPT-IN.† For this reason, it is impossible to know a) how accurate its mailing list is, b) how many incorrect email addressees are inconvenienced or c) how many false leads are provided to ENGINE database ìmember institutionsî.
2| does NOT provide a way to OPT-OUT of future emails.† If an email addressee: a)† is incorrect, b) has already chosen a school or c) simply wishes to receive no further emails, there is NO way to OPT-OUT† or unsubscribe from ALL ENGINE database ìmember institutionsî.
Attempts to address the email etiquette of the ENGINE program with Mike Nazareth, ENGINE Founder and Manager and Terra DuBois, University of Florida Chief Compliance, Ethics, and Privacy Officer, as well as Ken Fuchs, University of Florida President, have been unsuccessful.

Sending emails to individuals that have NO interest in your institution NOT only wastes the time of individuals who are the recipients of such emails, it also wastes the time of senders of such emails, i.e. YOU.

I urge you to contact the University of Florida and demand that Mr. Nazareth and the ENGINE database program implement explicit OPT-IN and OPT-OUT options for the ENGINE database mailing list as best email practices and proper email etiquette dictate it should.

If you choose NOT to do so, it is highly recommended that you include the following disclaimer ñ in addition to your current unsubscribe option (which does NOT work!) ñ in all email correspondence you initiate with email addressees you receive from the ENGINE database to avoid potential liability to George Mason University.

ìYou have received this email message because your name and email address was submitted to the University of Florida ENGINE database.† This database is disseminated to engineering schools such as George Mason University so we may contact prospective engineering students.† If you no longer wish to be contacted by any engineering schools, you may contact the University of Florida to unsubscribe.î