I've been getting a lot of that crap on my ifpa email, if you're on there...

I haven’t

Just GameRoomGuys but I did buy some kits from them at one time..

I have no problems with spam e-mail at all. Sometimes I get an offer from Marco, they have my e-mail address from ordering parts.

All emails I get from these companies I’ve signed up for, some you list I do not

I have received no spam from these companies...
I hope that pinside is not selling this information.
That is one of the main reasons that I refuse to use Facebook or other social media websites. Ever...
Cambridge Analytica is one the main offenders there, but there are likely many others.
You can see a documentary released recently "The Great Hack" and judge for yourself.

I have never received anything from them.

Nope.

Nothing here either.

I was thinking about this about an hour ago as I was deleting some spam from pinstadium. I just checked my contact info here and it's tied to my old email so I don't think it's pinside. I just placed an order recently with pinball life and willing to bet they may be the culprit.

I have never gotten any SPAM that is pinball related so I say it is highly unlikely from Pinside because I am on here all the time.

No unsolicited solicitations... just companies I've ordered from.

I have had my email linked to Pinside since I joined. No spam.

I have ordered a LOT of stuff from Pinball Life and I have not seen any spam as a result of that.. Yet...

Pinstadium one I almost guarantee is tied to ifpa. That’s the only place pinball related that passes out emails I know of.

This whole conversation leads me to a personal gripe I have with some stores... Lowes, Ace Hardware and many others, ask me for my phone number when I want to check out. If you refuse to give them your phone number, they don't want to give you any discounts or whatever that are linked to my past purchases. However, that phone number is linked directly to junk mail and other spam, which is where I get upset. I should not have to provide my phone number to make a purchase in a store in cash or with a debit card... It should be illegal to ask for this type of information, in my opinion.

I do get stuff from some vendors, but in every single case (pinballstar, Marco), it is vendors I have intentionally signed up for. I think Joe Newhart should be supported for all the work he does that goes into our local shows, so I subscribed to his email. None of it is from Pinside.

867-5309

I refuse as well.

But you could also set up a Google voice number for when you dont want to give out your real number.

If you've ever emailed a distributor or a manufacturer, that may have gotten you added to their mailing lists.

The privacy of Pinside member info is taken pretty seriously. robin would probably have to speak to it, but as far as I'm aware, no information is shared with anyone. The only situation I can think of where someone's information might be shared would be to comply with a legal court order.

Ask robin … but I think it's someone else.
I don't have any issues with pin companies spamming me unless I've bought something from them.

I haven’t received any pinball related spam - home loans and herbal viagra all the way down

It's almost certainly the IFPA. Pinstadium and Pinballstar both have used their list within the past week.
You can ask the IFPA to remove you from future sharing and they will.

Given Pinstadium's history in the Pinside market they'll do whatever is best for themselves and don't give a hoot what 'the community' or its members want.

AFAIK Pinballstar has ethics and would remove you. I've heard nothing but good things about Joe.

I wish they wouldn't spam too.

There IS one store that I agree to give my phone number to... Willingly... Autozone... If you purchase a car/truck part at Autozone and provide your phone number, that part and vehicle info you provide, is then linked to your "account number" (phone number) and if you have a problem with that part in the warranty period, they can look up your past parts purchased, based on that number and honor the warranty, without a receipt in most cases. I have purchased several parts that had a lifetime warranty and many years later, came back with the damaged part (from use) and got a new part without a receipt, because they had my previous purchase filed under my phone number in their database. This also will work for batteries (for instance) where you get the amortized value remaining in the warranty period if the battery fails. This information given to them results in a substantial amount of money saved in my case. You can also get a $20 discount from time to time, just for repeat business. That amounts to free parts for me from time to time. I have also received cash rebates that you have to enter after you get home online, with some parts. So, I make sure that I do give them my phone number every time. I have not received any spam or junk mail as result of purchases at Autozone, as far as I know.

I got an email from pinstadium today! Never gave them my email Addy or info ?

I can assure you that Pinside does not share email addresses or any other personal info of its users. I take your privacy very seriously and am certainly not in the business of selling data.

Also, let me point you all to our privacy settings again: https://pinside.com/pinball/my-pinside/settings - YOU determine who gets to see what!

Technically, yes. But that has never happened in the 15+ years of running Pinside.

PM @whysnow, he’ll be all over that one!

You guys ever here of a company called Google?

I believe they data mine info.

And it should be illegal...
Selling someone's personal information is an invasion of their privacy and should be a crime.
And it is also unethical.
Someone provides their personal information to get access to a website, they don't expect it to be sold to marketers to badger people with spam.
It is already illegal on medical information.

10 years ago when I used to post on AussieArcade a trusted mate and I set up a fake sale of a pinball machine using actual pictures of a machine I owned at the time in the forum trading section to test site integrity due to some suspicions we had.

I was the "seller" and he was the "buyer".

The entire transaction was conducted and negotiated via internal forum private messages.

Within a week of the "sale" my mate was contacted by a now "super moderator" on that site offering to buy the machine at the negotiated price.

We both stopped posting there shortly afterwards.

This is also why today that 99% of private machine sales in Australia are conducted well away from the local forums either via facebook, gumtree, ebay, dedicated personal website or classifieds.

has any one actually read the small print or remember what boxes where ticked when they signed up to IFPA? you probably all legally let them spam you lol!!! companies are good at hiding this shit in there t&c's

nothing here

Anyone getting one of our very infrequent emails can easily opt out in the email or can reply to it which I will get and I will immediately remove you... In our defense there is absolutely a conscious effort to not 'spam'... I only send an email blast out as most distributors do when there is a new product, I sent one last week with the reveal of the WW CE details and the last one I sent was literally 6 months ago when WW was revealed at MGC in April. I pay $ 150 a month to my email service to maintain our account and STILL choose not to use it unless I have something to share most people want to see. So I spent $ 900 over that time to have this service and CHOSE not to use it. I could have easily done an email a month to just get my name out there or try to sell excess inventory but I choose to not to in order to be respectful.

I believe we started our email list with good intent when we had been doing our charity raffles to facilitate donating the WOZ games we donated to children's hospitals when people would miss one and keep asking us to let them know when we did one and it was impossible to manually send an email to everyone one by one, from there people also wanted to know about game reveals. Many pinball collectors are NOT on Pinside and they don't know when something is out and they may miss a limited run and get upset. Case in point I've gotten about 50 emails this week of 'let me know when the MMR details are out'... we have pictures of new MMRs and I could have sent an email teaser out, but knowing I'd be sending another in a few days when we get the pricing \ models info to share I didn't feel it was right to send two on the same subject, I figured I'd wait. So, there is a lot of thought from us that goes into sending an email blast and like everything we do it is done with the upmost of respect. So sorry an email got to you - just unsubscribe or reply to the email and it's easily fixed.

The bottom line is if you guys want businesses in the hobby supporting the hobby (mine and many others) by paying Pinside, paying IFPA, doing shows we lose money at, donating to charity causes we get hit up for all the time, supporting tournaments with prizes, having launch parties, etc... you have to take that one email you may get at least from us in this case once in 6 months with a grain of salt and just hit delete or unsubscribe and be thankful you have vendors - distributors, parts manufacturers, mod makers filling the halls at shows and providing a lot of great other services to the community. It's all a big circle of support and giving back for the most part. Thank you to those who posted kind words and those who didn't get any emails from anyone mentioned and stated so to show there is nothing rampant at play.

TY Joe

It's ifpa for sure.
It's pretty annoying.

Have you ever requested a quote from those distributors? I get emails from all the major disribs each time a game is released because in the past I have shopped around to get quotes.

Well now I feel a little left out... I don't get any pinball related spam.

No spam here, either. Not sure if I would want any though. Maybe if it had discounted pinball goodies.

Hiding the fact that they INTEND on selling your personal information in T&C's and not allowing you access to their website without checking the box that says "Agree" is the way most companies avoid actually justifying release of all your personal information. They just show that you clicked the box and they have your permission. It should be illegal to deceive people like that and everyone knows it.

$150 is very expensive how many subs have you got? Have you looked into mailchimp or similar?

yeah, 100% IFPA

They started requiring an email a few years ago to be eligible for certain events.
Anyone getting this spam likely played in any IFPA event and provided your email (easy to not even realize what they will do with it)

On a side note:

Those fish bowls at restaurants, that state you can "Win a Dinner", just drop in your business card in for a draw. Someone is just collecting your info, that you freely gave up. Similarly at, Home Shows, any of those draws that you fill out, that info can also be used to create a lists.

Signing up for one of these free drawings is sure way to make sure that you get all the spam and junk mail that might have missed out on...
Once you get on one of those lists it is likely almost impossible to be removed...