Suppression List

In email marketing, this is a collection of valid email addresses whose users have signed up for and opted-out of regular email communications.  Under the CAN-SPAM Act, active in 2003, mass email senders and email marketers are required to provide an opt-out mechanism in all of their commercial email messages and newsletters. Once a user takes advantage of this mechanism, their information is removed from the sender’s mailing list and added to their suppression list. This list actively “suppresses” future commercial communication with that email address.

While suppression lists are put in place for the benefit of consumers and subscribers, these lists can also be abused by spammers. It is possible for third parties to leverage these valid email addresses for their own aims. When this occurs, the original collector of these addresses who provided the opt-out mechanism, is liable for suppression list abuse. However, there are settings in place to prevent this type of abuse through list protection and tracking.  Email marketers can choose to leverage neutral outsourced scrubbing of email lists, the distribution of secure hash suppression lists — which prevents abusers from recovering the original email unless they have the hash’s code, and the distribution of seeded email lists.