They probably just send a newsletter to StackOverflow users :-)
(On a side rant, I really dislike how a lot of websites have normalized “create an account on a website” to mean “Sign up for receiving a plethora of emails about everything the website and its creators are up to these days”)
Hear, hear. If I get an email from a company whose newsletter I didn't sign up for, I immediately unsubscribe... but I really shouldn't have to.
You can do the same thing in Gmail with the +, but some websites filter those out or don't allow them.