Changes to Canadian Anti Spam Laws PDF Print E-mail
Internet marketing
georgetown_ontario_411Changes to Canadian Anti Spam Laws (CASL) are coming up in late 2011 possibly early 2012. Previously known as Canadian Anti Spam Laws, Bill C-28 is now called Canada's Online Protection Legislation (COPL), and it imposes tougher rules for direct marketing including emails, SMS, social media postings and some voice communications.

What is needed to comply with Canadian Anti Spam Laws?

- Double (opt-in) consent
- No misleading subject lines or sender information
- Cannot alter transmission data
- Must provide a conspicuous unsubscribe mechanism
- Must include postal address of sender
- Cannot perform address harvesting to obtain e-mail addresses or send to harvested addresses

In a business relationship it is deemed that you have a consent if your relationship has existed for some time, or where the recipient has provided you with his/her email address. However, this consent is deemed valid only for two years. After that, you need to re-confirm with the recipient.

Penalties are $1 million and more

Penalties start from $1 million for companies and 
$1 million for individuals. You are liable even if someone else is doing the work on your behalf. Read the full text of Canadian Anti Spam Laws, Bill C-28

Ways to be compliant with Canadian Anti Spam Laws:

1. Ask for permission. Start gathering explicit consent from your contacts. Implied consent will not be enough. You can do this by emailing your clients asking for permission to be added to your list of subscribers. Or by asking them to sign up through your website.

2. Allow opt-out. Visible option to opt-out from receiving your newsletter remains a must. Some people unsubscribe by replying to an email rather than clicking the Unsubscribe button, so make sure you check your mailbox as well.

3. Offer options. Allow your contacts to select to receive only emails that are of interest to them e.g., newsletters, sale notifications, new product or service announcements, event invitations.

4. Specify frequency. Specify how often will subscribers receive your emails. People get a lot of emails so make sure you do not discourage them by frequency. Less is always more.  

5. Identify yourself. Always, be sure to identify yourself to your subscribers in the “From:” line, and use the name they recognize most easily – your name or your company name.

6. Be transparent. Your contact information and privacy policy should be included in all email communications to add credibility to your company.

7. Remind people why they are receiving your emails. This will is an opportunity to repeat that you are only sending these emails to help the person by providing valuable information.

8. Constantly improve content. Pay attention to your reports. If more than .5% of subscribers unsubscribe indicate that something is wrong. Most of the times, problem is content or frequency. Again, less but quality is always appreciated.

9. Avoid temptation to buy an email list!

Andrea Dubravsky - AD Webdesign
Web communications company.
www.adwebdesign.ca
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
289 428 1100 | 905 901 2506
Comments (0)Add Comment
feedSubscribe to this comment's feed
min/maxShow/hide comments

Write comment
feedShow/hide comment form

busy
Next >
 
Copyright © 2012 GeorgetownOn All Rights Reserved | www.georgetownon.ca | Designed by  AD Webdesign
| About project | Contact | RSS | Terms of Use |  Weblinks |
Sponsors: | Inuru | Nuruphoto | Dobre knihy | Ireland Photo Map |