In most of the services you sign up, have email opt-in mentioned somewhere in the fine print of their T&C and you only realize the fact once the emails start flooding into your email box, and yes this is definitely ethical in a relative sense at least.
The reason behind this is, Brand has invested resources in researching & creating that piece of perceived, coveted content and In-return they expect those who want access to that material, to provide their contact details. But the question is why? Why brands are collecting users data here?
And the answer is, the content they provide to the users is designed to be useful for brands to target them somewhere in the purchase journey. Corollary to this theory – If you want their content, you might be someone who they want to sell to.
This type of method or strategy is called a Lead Magnet via Gated Content. Sure, you might use a temporary mailbox and download the content.
But on the other hand, you may provide your email Id and then unsubscribe from their emails. That is the only thing you can do if you email opted in.
Thanks for taking a look; I’m excited to hear what do you think about this?