ExactTarget CMO Tim Kopp stepped down from his post at the company in mid-December, though the news broke today when the Austin-based branding agency Mass Relevance reported recruiting Kopp as a part-time board advisor. Kopp served as ExactTarget's chief marketing officer from 2008-2013. Last year, the company was acquired for $2.5 billion by Salesforce.com. Kopp plans to take time off from full time work, spending some time with startups and nonprofits.

New York Times reporter Nicole Perlroth argues that consumers should not share their email addresses with stores, because of the risk of security. In an opinion piece, written for The Times, she describes the experience of being asked by retailers to share her email, and the reasons that she always says no. The recent Target, Neiman Marcus and Snapchat data breaches are some examples of why Perlroth suggests that consumers keep their personal information private.

Fifty-one percent of email marketing messages that were opened between late November and the end of December took place on mobile devices, according to a new report from Return Path. Mobile opens were much higher than desktop, which only accounted for 27 percent of marketing messages opened and webmail which grabbed 22 percent of emails opened. The company predicts that if the current trend continues, mobile could represent 60 percent of all email opens by the holiday season in 2014.

Spending too much time on email at work can be bad for mental health, according to a new report from Dr. Emma Russell, at Kingston Business School in the UK. She analyzed 28 email users to determine how a worker's email habits influenced their work lives both positively and negatively. According to her research, the emails with the worst affect are those 'ping pong' email exchanges that go back and forth in real time. In addition, read receipts are likely to stress out employees. Responding to email after hours is also bad for mental health, according to the study.

Scammers are using fake LinkedIn accounts to sell email lists to marketers in order to appear legitimate, according to a report in The Magill Report. The site discovered this phenomenon after a reader complained of being ripped off to the tune of $3000. These scammers also supposedly sell list verification and hygiene services, but they fail to deliver on their promises.

Spending on email marketing increased 11.1 percent in 2013, according to Bruce Biegel, senior managing partner for Winterberry Group. Biegel revealed this news in a keynote at the Direct Marketing Club of New York's Annual Outlook luncheon, in which he reported that overall "direct and digital" spending increased only 7.2% in 2013, to $133.4 billion. Email was not the only channel to see an increase in spend. In fact, display saw a 35.5 percent spike, search saw a 12.9 percent increase, and social technology and services went up a whopping 50 percent.

PG&E has warned customers about an email scam campaign going around that comes in the form of a bill from the utility company. The spam has been sent to residents across the United States, even those outside of PG&E's coverage range. Like other spam scams, the emails solicit personal information from recipients, information that the company would never ask for via email.

Target's major data breach could have been even worse than previously reported. The company revealed today that 70 million customers had their names, mailing addresses, phone numbers and email addresses stolen. This comes as an additional revelation to last month's news that 40 million people had their credit card numbers stolen. This isn't a new breach, it's just more information about the same one that took place from November 27 to December 15.

Privacy advocates are concerned about a new feature that allows Google+ members to email another Google+ user's Gmail directly without having previously known their email address. While the feature does include an opt-out option, some experts say that it should have instead been an opt-in tool. Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center, told The Chicago Tribune, that the new feature was "troubling."

Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has issued a warning about an email scam that tells users they need to appear in court. Caldwell's office explained that these emails are spam and include malicious links that download viruses to a user's computer if clicked. The AG is instructing all consumers that receive the email to contact the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Office.