Closed Bug 1410789 Opened 8 years ago Closed 7 years ago

No option to unsubscribe from newsletter in Firefox account

Categories

(Cloud Services :: Server: Firefox Accounts, enhancement)

Product:
Cloud Services
Component:
Server: Firefox Accounts
Type:
enhancement
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED FIXED

People

(Reporter: fryskefirefox, Unassigned)

Details

(Whiteboard: [fxa-waffle-ignore])

Attachments

(2 files)

communication_preferences.png
331.69 KB, image/png
Details
email_unsubscribe.png
49.24 KB, image/png
Details
We received a notification from a user that there is not an option to unsubscribe from Mozilla newsletters, which according to the newsletter itself should be possible in Firefox Accounts. https://twitter.com/NBomb/status/921423296905613312 I couldn't find a newsletter in my own mailbox to confirm, but in my Firefox Account there indeed is no way to set anything for newsletters. Can someone please investigate?
Summary: No option to unsubscribe in Firefox account → No option to unsubscribe from newsletter in Firefox account
Component: General → Server: Firefox Accounts
Thanks for the report! I'm adding Alex who is the product manager for FxA, and Ben who helps us coordinate emails and marketing stuff. If I understand correctly, this user received several "transactional" emails from us, including the one about updating Terms. Since these emails were sent to all FxA users regardless of their subscription status, when the user is directed to "communication preferences" in FxA, they are not able to see an option to unsubscribe from the emails. The user mentions the following emails: > "Update to our Terms and Privacy Notice" yesterday, and "Like bookmarks? You’ll love this Firefox Account feature." Which I believe the user has (correctly) discovered there is no way to unsubscribe from. Ben, thoughts? Not being able to unsubscribe from the terms-related one should be easy enough to explain, it's an important legal update. But I can see why users would think the bookmarks-related one feels like an opt-in marketing email.
Flags: needinfo?(bniolet)
FWIW both of the above received the "Like bookmarks? You’ll love this Firefox Account feature." email.
And that last user "esm" reports that they don't have a Firefox Account.
@rfkelly - we are looking at the communication preference language now w/Alex. Do you have "esm" email address? I can look into it while Ben is out, because is not currently possible to send these emails if they don't have an Firefox Accounts so maybe multiple addresses is the issue.
Flags: needinfo?(bniolet)
@rfkelly fat fingered the button before I was done. You are correct, there is no way to opt-out of Account Communications (like Terms of Service updates). When creating an account, users agreed to the privacy notice that states "...require account creation to submit developer content; submit user reviews or comments; or install certain types of apps. You may periodically receive emails in connection with your account."
> Do you have "esm" email address? I asked on twitter but haven't had a reply yet. We don't have an account for the primary address advertised on that user's website, but it might also be e.g. an old someone+firefox@example.com style address that's since been forgotten about. > there is no way to opt-out of Account Communications (like Terms of Service updates) Ack, thanks. > we are looking at the communication preference language now w/Alex My 2c - at a guess, I think there's two issues feeding into the complaints here: * The email says "You're receiving this email because you signed up for a Firefox Account" and our terms say "We may send you emails related to your Firefox Account", but the content of the email doesn't pass the "relatedness" test for these users and instead feels like marketing that they should be able to opt out of. * The email contains a "manage your account preferences" link, but the page that's linked to doesn't actually provide a way to control the receipt of further emails such as this (and indeed, correctly reflects that the user is not subscribed to additional marketing emails about Mozilla and Firefox). Can we change either the way that link is presented in the email, or the content of the "communication preferences" pane that it links to, to more accurately convey what's going on here?
> > Do you have "esm" email address? > I asked on twitter but haven't had a reply yet. I got a (very detailed and friendly!) reply to this, and filed Bug 1411141 with all the details. It's MoCo-confidential because PII. I'm copying the bulk of their feedback below, minus PII: """ There's no unsubscribe link, but there is a link at the bottom: "You can manage your account preferences at any time." I followed that, and wound up at https://accounts.firefox.com/signin where I was asked to log in. I clicked "Forgot password?" (assuming I might have a lingering account kicking around here), and gave the email address the message was sent to (in this case, "REDACTED"). In response, I got "Unknown account. Sign up" in a red box. (I *did* have a Firefox Account at one point, which I deleted a while back; sorry, I don't have a good measure for "a while" here, and I'm not sure this is the address I had tied to it.) So, near as I can tell: - I don't have a Firefox Account, certainly not for the email address I was contacted at, but had one in the past; maybe this campaign was working off of stale data? - There's no direct unsubscribe link in the message to stop marketing email like this, it demands a login - There *is* a List-Unsubscribe header, which helps Gmail users, I suppose? But your average person isn't going to go rummaging through email headers to see if there's a way to unsubscribe - Emailing the List-Unsubscribe address did not elicit a response, so I don't actually know if that worked. I suppose I could email the Return-Path address and make it look like it bounced ;) If it were any other organization, I'd have just clicked "Mark as Spam" and forgotten about it, but this is Mozilla. (Also, while it's been a while since I had my head in this stuff, it seems this is a violation of CAN-SPAM. ;)) """
It's my understanding that we've made some changes to our email sending in response to this, is there more work remaining or should we close this bug?
Flags: needinfo?(bniolet)
Whiteboard: [fxa-waffle-ignore]
(In reply to Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly] from comment #9) > is there more work remaining or should we close this bug? I received today another unsolicited one about Quantum with "Subject: Welcome to the new Firefox" in addition to the earlier one about Pocket with "Subject: Like bookmarks? You’ll love this Firefox Account feature.". On https://accounts.firefox.com/settings/communication_preferences I see a button with the label "Subscribe" as if I am not subscribed. Which is correct in that I never subscribed. I never made an explicit action to opt in to "news". I do not know if that was later added, but https://accounts.firefox.com/signup currently shows a checkbox with label "Get the latest news about Mozilla and Firefox" that is disabled by default (good!). Is it that these mails are sent irrespective of the subscribe status in a Firefox Account? Does a Firefox Account which received explicit action to subscribe, now show a button to unsubscribe?
> but https://accounts.firefox.com/signup currently shows a checkbox with label "Get the latest news about Mozilla > and Firefox" that is disabled by default (good!). > [...] > Does a Firefox Account which received explicit action to subscribe, now show a button to unsubscribe? Both the checkbox on the signup form, and the "subscribe" button under communication_preferences, opt the user in to a more general series of emails with news about Firefox and about other Mozilla activities. This is purely opt-in. > Is it that these mails are sent irrespective of the subscribe status in a Firefox Account? The short answer is yes, there is a specific category of email that is directly related to use of Firefox, which can be sent to all Firefox Account users just by virtue of having an account. There is currently no way to opt out of receiving these emails besides deleting your Firefox Account. As a purely personal opinion, I think it'd be worth exploring an opt-out setting along the lines of "only send me critical legal and security updates", because it's really not in anyone's interests to send users email that they actively don't want.
(In reply to Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly] from comment #11) > There is currently no way to opt out of receiving these emails besides > deleting your Firefox Account. As a purely personal opinion, I think it'd > be worth exploring an opt-out setting along the lines of "only send me > critical legal and security updates", because it's really not in anyone's > interests to send users email that they actively don't want. A very strong +1 to this.
See also https://twitter.com/arntzenius/status/930946056506036224 """ @firefox, I know you're excited about Quantum, but my Firefox account is *not* subscribed to "news about Mozilla and Firefox". Quantum is not related to my Firefox account, so why are you emailing me? """
It's clear we have some work to do on our side to make this experience feel right for our users. I agree that we need to work on a way to allow users to control the flow and volume of messaging related to their account.
Flags: needinfo?(bniolet)
See also https://twitter.com/capndesign/status/955488586350170112 """ I just got a promotional email from @firefox and I can’t unsubscribe without deleting my account.
Ugh, bugzilla emoji truncation strikes again. My whole comment was: ------------------------ See also https://twitter.com/capndesign/status/955488586350170112 """ I just got a promotional email from @firefox and I can’t unsubscribe without deleting my account. :thinking face: I really want to be a Firefox fan, but this combined with some memory leaks led me back to Chrome. At least the Javascript rendering engine is super fast? """ What's the next step for us here? Would it be appropriate for the FxA team to pitch a modified "communication preferences" page with three levels of notification? I'm thinking something like this, except worded good: * News about Mozilla and Firefox (opt-in) * Updates about my Account (the default) * Only critical legal and security updates (users can opt-out to this level)
bniolet: when can you schedule the work to add these emails as an opt-out mailing list?
Flags: needinfo?(bniolet)
(In reply to Alex Davis [:adavis] [PM FxA+Sync] from comment #17) > bniolet: when can you schedule the work to add these emails as an opt-out > mailing list? Not exactly sure what you're asking. We are already excluding deleted accounts from our FxA sends. Unless I'm missing something in the above thread, I think the next step is for us to move forward, together, on giving users the ability to control the volume of emails. The so-called "only if my account is on fire" option so that a user who gets emails doesn't have to delete their account to opt out of any and all communications.
Flags: needinfo?(bniolet)
(In reply to Ben Niolet from comment #18) > (In reply to Alex Davis [:adavis] [PM FxA+Sync] from comment #17) > Unless I'm missing something in the above thread, I think the next step is > for us to move forward, together, on giving users the ability to control the > volume of emails. The so-called "only if my account is on fire" option so > that a user who gets emails doesn't have to delete their account to opt out > of any and all communications. Sure, we're saying the same thing. Selecting "only if my account is on fire" is pretty much an opt-out for onboarding emails and other updates. Users will never be able to unsubscribe from security notification.
(In reply to Alex Davis [:adavis] [PM FxA+Sync] from comment #19) > (In reply to Ben Niolet from comment #18) > > (In reply to Alex Davis [:adavis] [PM FxA+Sync] from comment #17) > > Unless I'm missing something in the above thread, I think the next step is > > for us to move forward, together, on giving users the ability to control the > > volume of emails. The so-called "only if my account is on fire" option so > > that a user who gets emails doesn't have to delete their account to opt out > > of any and all communications. > > Sure, we're saying the same thing. Selecting "only if my account is on fire" > is pretty much an opt-out for onboarding emails and other updates. > > Users will never be able to unsubscribe from security notification. Perfect. As for timing, I'm ready to jump on this as soon as you guys are. It's important.
Great! I'm assuming next steps for us are: - Get the copy to describe that opt-out "mailing list" that contains onboarding content for our Settings UI. We're open to suggestions. - A means to unsubscribe a user from the list. API call? - Any review needed from legal?
+stomlinson; Shane, this is another basket-related thing we need to ensure doesn't fall off our radar. I think we'd actually removed the ability to "unsubscribe" from our Communication Preferences page, in favour of just linking out to the subscription management UI in basket. So it's not clear to me whether we actually can make this change on the FxA side any more, or if it's now wholly on the basket side of things. I'm attaching some screenshots of our current "communication preferences" flow. If you didn't opt-in to marketing emails during signup, there's just a big "subscribe" button to opt you in. If you do subscribe, you see a "Manage Subscriptions" button that takes you to the hosted management page on Basket. On this page you can opt out of the monthly Firefox newsletter, among other things. Interestingly, at the bottom that page there's a checkbox for "Remove me from all Mozilla emails". Ben, if the user happened to find an check that box, would it also remove them from the FxA onboarding emails that are the subject of this bug? If so, perhaps the right solution here is simply to help users to to this hosted "manage your subscriptions" page so they can find an check that checkbox.
Flags: needinfo?(bniolet)
(In reply to Ryan Kelly [:rfkelly] from comment #22) > Created attachment 8972214 [details] > communication_preferences.png > > +stomlinson; Shane, this is another basket-related thing we need to ensure > doesn't fall off our radar. > > I think we'd actually removed the ability to "unsubscribe" from our > Communication Preferences page, in favour of just linking out to the > subscription management UI in basket. So it's not clear to me whether we > actually can make this change on the FxA side any more, or if it's now > wholly on the basket side of things. > > I'm attaching some screenshots of our current "communication preferences" > flow. > > If you didn't opt-in to marketing emails during signup, there's just a big > "subscribe" button to opt you in. If you do subscribe, you see a "Manage > Subscriptions" button that takes you to the hosted management page on > Basket. On this page you can opt out of the monthly Firefox newsletter, > among other things. > > Interestingly, at the bottom that page there's a checkbox for "Remove me > from all Mozilla emails". Ben, if the user happened to find an check that > box, would it also remove them from the FxA onboarding emails that are the > subject of this bug? Sadly, no. The logic that handles user opt-outs for our account-related emails is not connected to basket. I'm thinking we should either update that language to say something like "marketing emails" or remove it altogether because we don't want to create a false impression that they'd never get email from us. They would in the event of an incident or policy change. And while we believe the emails we are sending are related to their use of their account, I'm sure some users would not get the fine distinction and assume that FxA emails we're sending that remind them to Sync or explain how Send Tabs works are "marketing emails." > > If so, perhaps the right solution here is simply to help users to to this > hosted "manage your subscriptions" page so they can find an check that > checkbox. Agree. I think simple is better. We will still have a separate system for handling opt-outs of accounts-related email that we send, but this would at least cut down on the confusion. A perfect solution continues to elude us, but I think we all agreed some time back that since we found a way to opt out these emails without a new basket / salesforce integration, it was a better way to go.
Flags: needinfo?(bniolet)
> that since we found a way to opt out these emails without a new basket / salesforce integration It's been a little while, I don't recall what we settled on regarding the technical details here. Is this some additional internal state that is managed inside the SFMC platform, but separate from Basket?
I have asked Julie to ask Legal whether we will need to do anything here to comply with GDPR, perhaps by offering an additional "Opt-In to transactional emails" checkbox or similar on signup.
Flags: needinfo?(jmccracken)
We've been treating these FxA emails as opt-out and have worked with legal on that designation. For GDPR compliance, my understanding is that we'd need to be sure to delete all records stored in Salesforce if and when the user deletes their account and I believe that work is underway. As for the way we handled opt-outs: We built a stand-alone page that confirms your opt-out. Users who click an opt out link from an email land on that page. The actual logic to opt them out occurs within (Salesforce) Marketing Cloud: an hourly query identifies any individual who ever clicked that link (which is unique to this program). They are then essentially quarantined. What we didn't want to do was equate an opt-out of these with a complete opt out of everything, since we will still be obligated to email them if there is a data incident or a policy update.
(In reply to Shane Tomlinson [:stomlinson] from comment #25) > I have asked Julie to ask Legal whether we will need to do anything here to > comply with GDPR, perhaps by offering an additional "Opt-In to transactional > emails" checkbox or similar on signup. Discussed in May 4th legal sync up. I sent this bug to legal as part of those meeting notes. It will give him more info. to prepare for a discussion with marketing. Thanks, Shane.
Flags: needinfo?(jmccracken) → needinfo?(stomlinson)
I have created this MoCo Confidential bug for the legal discussion: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1462128
:julie - is the :ni for me for a particular question or just to make sure I'm tracking this?
Flags: needinfo?(stomlinson) → needinfo?(jmccracken)
(In reply to Shane Tomlinson [:stomlinson] from comment #29) > :julie - is the :ni for me for a particular question or just to make sure > I'm tracking this? Just to give you a head's up that I'd entered a response for my needinfo. For some reason, Bugzilla wasn't clearning my needinfo when I unchecked the box.
Attached image email_unsubscribe.png —
For completeness, I'm attaching a screenshot of the latest email footer, which has a clear "unsubscribe" option that goes straight to a page that opts you out of these emails, as described in Comment 26. I think we can close this out, but I'll defer that to Shane in case there's any further follow-ups we want to do on the FxA side of things.
Flags: needinfo?(jmccracken) → needinfo?(stomlinson)
> I think we can close this out, but I'll defer that to Shane in case there's any further follow-ups we want to do on the FxA side of things. I'm OK closing this out as FIXED since the Firefox setup emails contain an opt-out link.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 7 years ago
Flags: needinfo?(stomlinson)
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Please note '[1495965]' has been linked as related (in the event fixing this bug didn't illuminate the - likely shared - root cause)...
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