When I visit my sister I often don’t knock. I walk in like I own the place and just go to the fridge and start searching for a snack and some vino! My wife says it’s rude but hey, it’s my baby sis and we don’t need to go through these pleasantries. Now if a stranger tried that they would quickly be met with a slightly different attitude. Being her brother I don’t need consent but others do and the way our businesses communicate electronically will have to follow some similar rules.
CASL stands for Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation and you will need to be ready by July 1st. This is a big deal and penalties can be costly. CASL is broad and deals with not just spam but hacking, malware, online fraud and others but we’re going to focus on electronic communications since that’s what applies to all businesses.
CASL’s Requirements
Consent requirements
Identification requirements
Unsubscribe mechanism
CONSENT
Spam is often thought of as pornography, pharmaceuticals or those letters from Nigeria, but it’s much broader. If you’re sending any sort of commercial electronic messages consent is generally required but there are a few instances where consent is implied and others where it’s not required.
Situations where consent is implied or not required
– You have a current contractual relationship
– You’re sending to family members or you have a personal relationship
– You’re sending to employees or individuals associated with your business
– You’re providing warranty or safety information about a product
– You had a transaction with this individual within the last 2 years
If you don’t think the above applies or you are targeting prospects you will need to obtain express consent
– If you have an online sign up form you must clearly state what you will be sending. ie. ‘Sign up for our newsletter’
– If there is an opt-in checkbox it must not be preselected for them.
IMPORTANT: You must retain these records
IDENTIFICATION
What identification to include in your messages
– Your name
– Your company name
– Your mailing address (physical or mailbox)
– Your phone number or email address
UNSUBSCRIBE MECHANISM
– An unsubscribe mechanism that is available for 60 days after receipt and effective within 10 days.
There’s many ESP’s (Email Service Providers) all over the world but ultimately you are responsible for complying with CASL.
Campayn can help with consent requirements, identification requirements and an unsubscribe mechanism.
We help with consent by retaining sign up records for you. As of July 1st, 2014 Campayn will track every sign up done through forms created on Campayn. This includes our WordPress forms, forms embedded on your website and full screen forms you can use on desktop or mobile devices. Should you require we will be able to provide you with exact list of individuals that signed up to specific forms expressing consent and we’ll include a server generated date and time stamp. We can help with the identification component by automatically including your name, your company name, your mailing address and your email address. We also automatically include an unsubscribe link that is effective as soon as your recipients click it and complies with CASL.
Get prepared and get compliant!