Great read! I’m struggling with this on both sides: as the recipient, and the sender. Part of this,I think, is that the technology doesn’t yet allow the recipient to create exactly the filters that they need. For example, I’d love to be able to specify “only notify me when there is a link to an article about Topic X that was published no more than a year ago and is text and not a video.” The filters are not yet granular enough. Also, this article reminded me of the creepiest subject line to land in my inbox recently: “Why I Know I Like You, Dawne”, which, for me, implied a level of familiarity that is simply inappropriate. I opened it (thereby improving the “open rate”) only to find out if I would find the text of the email similarly creepy. I did. From the sender’s perspective, part of the challenge in this particular case would be understanding the motivations/reactions behind the numbers —yes, I opened it, but the sender has no way of knowing why I didn’t click on the included links. For their sake, I hope they don’t think it’s because the email wasn’t personal enough! I could be a good digital citizen and let them know, of course. But I was so annoyed by the email that I haven’t done anything with it. And as to that hideous popup that’s appearing on seemingly every site: “Will you allow XYZ to send you notifications?” No! No, I won’t.