Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)

You may have known about this, but I just came across it.
Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation begins to come into effect July 1, 2014.

“The Act will begin to take effect on July 1, 2014 when most of the Act comes into force. Once the law is in force, it will help to protect Canadians while ensuring that businesses can continue to compete in the global marketplace.”

http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home

Thanks I could use this for a legal challenge.
I was looking at anything I could get my hands on.
Much appreciated.

Remember - Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation begins to come into effect July 1, 2014.

Not before.

Thanks Claude.
Much appreciated.

So do they think this will have any effect on the stupid self proclaimed SEO experts that we all get calls from…I doubt it! JMO

Probably will be as effective as the infamous ‘‘No Call List’’!

G

Have you noticed the ramp-up of spam lately in your inbox…desperation before the new law.

What will this mean for monthly newsletters like Home Hints and NACHI’s version of it?

No effect on it. Not every email is spam.

Actually Nick, it does have an effect on it.

The CASL addresses “electronic message” not just those that would be, by normal folks, considered Spam.

As such ALL streams of electronic message that have already been implicitly agreed to (pre-July 1st 2014), have to be explicitly agreed to over the next 36 months.

Opt-out is not longer recognised in Canada as explicit consent, all companies have to request opt-in or desist sending these messages after June 30th 2017.

Any NEW messages MUST have opt-in consent prior to sending ANY electronic messages. A subscription button for an email address is no longer valid. There must be a multiple approval, which I believe both InterNACHI and OntarioACHI already have, where the subscription notice goes out to the subscriber and that subscriber, via an email must confirm consent.

Following that, an opt-out option must accompany every electronic message, and the full physical address of the sender must be on the electronic message.

I haven’t quite worked out how that is going to work for Texts which are limited to 140 characters, but then i guess the legislators never thought that one through too well either.

The interesting thing here is, the opt-out doesn’t have to be for ALL communications from what I can see in the legislation. The opt-out could just be for a newsletter. I suspect the first test case will come down and state “the spirit” of the law is that any single opt-out of an electronic message type, must include the cessation of all messages in that media. I’m not sure if it means the cessation of all messages.

In other words:

  1. If you have explicit consent to communicate with someone electronically and
  2. They subsequently opt out of having automatic texts sent to them

I don’t see in the legislation where it demands you must cease ALL electronic messages, therefore until such time as they opt-out of email messaging, or targeted social media messaging these would still be valid under the original explicit consent.

While you are absolutely correct that not all email is spam, not all spam is sent via email. That’s why this piece of legislation is so all encompassing and likely to be re-visited several times in the way of appeals, before the really big fines get handed out and stick.

Either way, the lawyers stand to make a lot of money in the meantime.

A really good site that explains much of the legislation (by clicking different radio buttons as you progress the pop outs give more info) is here: http://casltoolkit.com/ . What this site misses is the fact that the act applies to ALL commercial electronic messages, not just email.

I hope this helps.

p.s.

For the doubters a to how far this legislation intrudes in your ability to contact people pay careful attention to the definitions at the beginning of the act namely:

“electronic address”
« adresse électronique »
“electronic address” means an address used in connection with the transmission of an electronic message to

  • (a) an electronic mail account;
  • (b) an instant messaging account;
  • (c) a telephone account; or
  • (d) any similar account.

“electronic message”
« message électronique »
“electronic message” means a message sent by any means of telecommunication, including a text, sound, voice or image message.

The text of this Act in it’s entirety, for those who have difficulty sleeping can be found here

Great info Len.