Canada’s anti spam legislation is going into effect tomorrow, July 1st (with a 3-year transition period attached to it).
This change in Canadian spam rules (the regulation itself is called Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation, CASL) is not directly related to our service, the generation of privacy policies. But it does not hurt to know more about the topic. Emailing is a privacy related topic, therefore make sure you educate yourself about it. Spam is a very serious problem and privacy authorities have powerful tools to hurt organisations that go against their provisions.
When does the CASL apply to you?
The CASL is relevant to you and your situation when you have Canadian users on your emailing lists.
What’s the most important information regarding CASL?
You should probably start using permission based email-marketing. That means you have express consent by the people on your list. It’s the easiest way to make sure everything is going down smoothly.
There are three general requirements for sending a commercial electronic message (CEM) to an electronic address. You need (1) consent, (2) identification information and (3) an unsubscribe mechanism. The questions under this heading relate to the second requirement – identification information.
To find out what that means consult the FAQ.
More basic information about the CASL?
The CASL is enforced by three agencies. They are the CRTC, the Competition Bureau, and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. The CRTC is providing a lot of guidance to some of which I’ll be linking right below in the informational green box.
Guidance links for the CASL
That’s it. If you are using Mailchimp for your newsletter/emailing needs then you may consult their blog post regarding CASL here.
