Business Insider
Digital start Dashlane has a new online tool that allows email users to scan their inboxes to find out if they have ever shared any online passwords via email. Inbox Scan asks for one time access to the consumer's inbox to scan for these details. This information is then shared in a collection of bubbles with every account stored in your email, as well as if the tool found any plain-text passwords for that account as well.
The Scotsman
Authorities in Scotland have issued a warning about a phishing email claiming to come from Virgin Media. The spam emails in circulation claim to be from 'The Virgin Media Team' and have the subject line: 'Your Virgin Media billing details are incomplete'. The emails then try to get a user to complete their profiles on a site that is illegally collecting their personal information.
Direct Marketing News
Mobile email conversion rates increased 70 percent over the past year, according to new research from Yesmail. The "Email Marketing Compass" found that marketers have adopted more mobile-friendly strategies including responsive design, adaptive landing pages and path-to-purchase optimization, and thus increased mobile conversions.
TechCrunch
Mobile payments company Square has launched an email marketing service called Square Marketing. The platform is designed to help small businesses create marketing campaigns and competes with players like MailChimp, Marketo and Constant Contact. The company is positioning itself as having better data than its competitors since many consumers use its payment system to pay at these small businesses.
Business Solutions
The National Retail Federation testified at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Information Technology to push for better standards in data breaches. The NRF's David French suggests that better policy could protect businesses and consumers against cyber hacks. "We should not be satisfied with simply determining what to do after a data breach occurs," wrote French In an open letter to President Obama. "Instead, it is important to look at why such breaches occur and what the perpetrators get out of them so that we can find ways to reduce and prevent not only the breaches themselves …
Computerworld
Oracle has released a new marketing cloud solution that aims to solve the common challenge that many marketers face when it comes to unifying data across channels. The Oracle ID Graph claims to help marketers connect different consumer identities across channels and devices to make it easier for marketers to send deliver a more intelligent experience.
BBC
Over the weekend, Google forgot to update part of its email software leading to errors and safety warnings in Gmail accounts over the weekend. The majority of users began seeing error and safety warnings on the platform. The issue was caused by Google failing to renew a security certificate for Gmail. Google has since fixed the issue.
PlayStationLifeStyle.net
Sony Play Station has sent out emails letting PS Vita customers know about a refund they are getting as part of a settlement in a class action lawsuit. The email comes after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved a ruling against Sony Computer Entertainment America which found that Sony used false advertising to promote its handheld device.
CNN Money
Microsoft celebrated its 40th anniversary on April 4th and to celebrate, co-founder Bill Gates sent out an email commemorating the anniversary. "Early on, Paul Allen and I set the goal of a computer on every desk and in every home. It was a bold idea and a lot of people thought we were out of our minds to imagine it was possible," Gates wrote in the email. "It is amazing to think about how far computing has come since then, and we can all be proud of the role Microsoft played in that revolution."
The Indy Channel
An Indiana election board has found that a local school superintendent was not in the wrong for sending an email pushing a political referendum to a list of parents whose children attend the school district. Dr. Jim Snapp used his own email address, not one associated with the school district, which got him off the hook. However, the election board did raise concerns about the school district sharing its email list with a referendum strategist and questions still remain as to the legality of this move.