Security issue

[MarquisWines]

It doesn't seem like I'm the only one experiencing problems with rs6.net links. While I concede that security programs such as anti-virus programs and firewalls may contribute to this issue, it's disappointing that customers need to perform several actions to make Constant Contact work for them.

Two things suggested by CC support in this thread:

1. Adding Constant Contact to whitelists <-- not all users have the access or the knowledge to be able to do this on their work networks.

2. Sending the name of the firewall and antivirus programs to Constant Contact support <-- This is onerous for your clients as well as ours. Despite all the CC users sending this information to CC, what steps have been taken to contact those security vendors to have CC added to their whitelist so this does not happen in the future? In other words, if the next Norton update still blocks your emails, what is the purpose of sending this information to CC support staff?

[KevinR042]

I'm also getting emails from my subscribers complaining that UBlock Origin is preventing them from clicking on my links. It appears that rs6.net is on their "block" list. This MUST be rectified, or I'm going to have to switch to a new service. I can't have my readers unable to click links, this is vital.

[Timothy_G]

Hello KevinR042,

Our technicians are aware of the situation with UBlock Origin and are working on a solution. The reader can also disable blocking for rs6.net and/or r20.rs6.net in uBlock Origin settings.
https://www.screencast.com/t/G6HcpRySG

[AllenS5]

This problem was brought to your attention in 2017 and it is still happening.  I have 2000 on my mailing list and can't request them all to white list.  Can't you work something out with Norton to fix this issue?

[SophiaL37]

Hi.

I am still having this issue (2019, but I was not the original poster) with my own, as well as some client's email. I do not have Norton. The only program I use is McAfee and I don't have any capability within it to add these addresses to a white list.

• constantcontact.com
• r20.rs6.net
• rs6.net
• s3.amazon.com
• files.ctctcdn.com
• files.constantcontact.com

This is only a recent issue (the last month). I've been using your software for YEARS. I reached out on twitter and was told the following:

At least I have an answer for you. It does appear to be your security program that is causing the issue. But you can tell the security program that content from Constant Contact is okay through a process we call whitelisting.

Here are the instructions and the Constant Contact URLs to whitelist,  which includes the http://r20.rs6.net that you have seen.

https://knowledgebase.constantcontact.com/articles/KnowledgeBase/5800-whitelisting-constant-contact-...

This was on October 14th. 

Please help. I cannot access any links or videos in the newsletters I release. I release a newsletter every day.

Thanks.

[Zoe_H]

Hello @SophiaL37,

I apologize that you are having the same experience with your contacts. If you are unable to have them white list I do recommend giving our Deliverability team a call as they will be able to provide you with more information and advice on this issue. Thank you! 

[AngelaM9]

I received this email from a subscriber this morning: "I wanted to tell you that every time I tried to click on a link in the email to go to the webpage, my Norton freaked out and told me it was dangerous to go to the site, so it was blocked. I tried this on a bunch of different links in the email of the newsletter and finally just went to your main site and found all the links there and those worked just fine without a warning. So it was just the email links with the dangerous warning. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I wanted you to know."

It seems like Norton is blocking Constant Contact links. The subscriber said she had no problem visiting the links on our actual website, but the ones in the email were flagged as dangerous. I see that this problem has been going on for several years now. What is Contact Contact doing about this issue? 

I saw your "solutions" about adding exceptions to Norton, and that's not realistic. I can't tell thousands of people to do that every time we send an email. Has Constant Contact reached out to Norton and tried to fix this? This is a reason to switch to another email provider that doesn't have this issue.

[Frankie_P]

Hi @AllenS5  and @AngelaM9 

I apologize you both are having this experience with our tracking links as well. It's important to mention our Support is also working with Norton to resolve this. Whitelisting Constant Contact is only a workaround we suggest in the meantime. We have also seen users who have contacted Norton directly as well and listed our redirect link as safe through their support.

[TribbetB]

PiHole also blocks your rs6.net links, Constant Contact. It seems the domain has likely gotten on one of the blocking lists, used for many any-malware and anti-ad products.

[KimberlyP8]

We've decided not to invest any more energy by our staff into email marketing with Constant Contact.