PRISM’s correspondence center emails vendors based on events that occur such as password reset, late or non-reporting, and certification renewals. The correspondence center can also be used to send bulk mail to the vendor community. Jurisdictions use the bulk mail feature to perform outreach. When vendors cite the email from PRISM as spam, it is a formal complaint to their email service provider (i.e., Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, etc) which eventually notifies the sender’s mail provider, AWS (Amazon Web Services) in PRISM’s case. Left un-remedied, the sender’s mail service is interrupted. This is not AWS’ policy but a mandate from the Internet governing board and has been made policy. The policy stipulates that any system sending email must provide a means for the recipient to opt-out of receiving emails. This is classically known as un-subscribing. Recipients can Opt-in or re-subscribe, but it must be logged that it is the recipient’s decision.  PRISM is subject to this policy and provides opt-out/opt-in as a feature to the vendor community. PRISM also provides jurisdiction’s indication the vendors have opted-out and the ability to start the process of a vendor opting-in.

The Vendor Opt-out feature

PRISM provides an opt-out message at the end of every email sent to vendors. By clicking on the link in the message, PRISM will recognize the vendor's desire not to receive email from PRISM. No mail will be sent to the vendor from PRISM. Only a vendor can Opt-out. PRISM will place a pink shade over the vendor’s email address, in the vendor management module, to indicate the vendors’ opt-out status.

The “Vendor Unsubscribe List” report provides a list of all vendors who have opted-out.

The Vendor Opt-in feature

Opting-in can be performed by the vendor or a monitor.

Vendor-initiated Opt-in

Once a vendor has opted-out, each subsequent login will remind the vendor of their opt-out status and allow the vendor to opt-in (see below).

1.If the vendor selects “Yes,” the vendor will receive an email message confirming the opt-in decision.

2.Clicking the link in the email confirms the vendors’ decision and displays an acknowledgment message on the PRISM screen.

3.The PRISM audit log also captures the vendors decision to opt-in to PRISM mail services (correspondence).

Monitor-initiated Opt-in

Monitors can initiate the vendor’s opt-in process by performing the following actions:

1.Log into PRISM as a monitor

2.Identify the targeted vendor from the Vendor Management vendor listing. Note the pink shading over the vendor’s contact email field

3.From the small hamburger menu of the targeted vendor select subscribe. Subscribe will only show for vendors who have opted-out.

4.PRISM will send the vendor an email with an embedded subscribe link

5.Once the vendor clicks the subscribe link, PRISM will display an acknowledgment message on the PRISM screen for the vendor. PRISM will also remove the pink shading of the vendor’s contact email address.

From this point, the vendor will receive email from PRISM mail services (correspondence).

In conclusion, PRISM is fully adherent to the new web policies and presents best-practice workflows for opting-out and opting-in to PRISM mail services.