As we will soon be celebrating the 3rd anniversary of the adoption of Bill C-28, I would like to take this opportunity to remind those who are not yet aware of this announcement that it is not too late to comply! As a guide (or reminder), here are some details on the new Canadian anti- spam law .
Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation refers to " An Act to promote the efficiency and responsiveness of the Canadian economy by regulating certain practices that discourage the conduct of business by electronic means and to amend the Act on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the Competition Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Telecommunications Act ”… phew!
Its objective: To encourage the growth of e-commerce by ensuring business confidence and consumer confidence in the online market.
In other words, it is a law aimed at regulating online commercial exchanges in order to reduce harmful “spam” in Canada. However, all commercial electronic messages (CEMs) will be governed by this law, ie emails and text messages.
In addition to CEMs, the law also seeks to control other electronic exchanges between a business and a consumer: the installation of computer programs on another person's computer and the modification of transmission data without express consent. .
The law has been adopted… but is not yet in force! Here's how the law has gone so far:
At this time, Industry Canada would be reviewing the many comments on the latest draft regulations in order to draft the final version of the regulations, and set an official effective date.
Update (December 6): The Act will come into force on July 1, 2014 !
The law mentions that electronic communications can only be carried out with the prior consent of the persons concerned. Here are the different types of consent that give you permission to communicate with your potential customers.
Written consent can be given, either electronically or on paper, and is considered valid as long as the information can be verified.
For a consent obtained orally , it is valid if:
In all these cases, there is no expiration date on the consent.
To obtain explicit consent by verifiable information online, the law prohibits the opt-out (eg: box already checked), which does not represent in its sense a positive or explicit manifestation of the consumer's will.
You must then proceed with an active consent mechanism ( opt-in ) , and this can be done by checking a box or entering your email address. The text that accompanies the action must indicate that it is possible to withdraw consent.
However, care must be taken, the request must be requested separately from other elements (e.g. general conditions of use or sale):
It is possible to solicit a person with whom a business or private relationship already exists before the first MEC:
In these particular cases, the duration of the consent has a definite duration of 2 years from the date of purchase/receipt of the service/end of an agreement. In the case of a request for information, the duration is shortened to 6 months.
It is therefore important to think about asking these people to give you explicit consent, to skip the time limit.
Note: If there is no obvious indication that the person does not wish to receive unsolicited CEMs, it is possible to send them to an email address if it is in plain view.
Several types of messages will not comply with these rules. It will therefore be possible for a communicator to provide without consent:
Any information to be included in the CEM that helps identify the sender or understand how to unsubscribe must be clear and easily readable . Certain information is now mandatory and must be included in the message:
When the law comes into force, it should be easy for a user to withdraw consent with a simple, quick, easy-to-use opt-out mechanism that can be accessed without difficulty or delay.
For example, a link in a received CEM leading to a page allowing the user to indicate whether they no longer wish to receive a type of message, or no longer wish to receive CEMs at all from the sender , is considered acceptable.
The unsubscribe request must be processed within a maximum of 10 days.
Here is a short list of elements to be revised between now and the entry into force of the law:
Update (December 6): The Act will gradually come into force from July 1, 2014 !
Is it worth preparing to avoid a hefty fine when it comes into effect? Possibly.
Is it worth reviewing its practices to better respect users? So there: yes! If you are planning your strategies for 2014, allow yourself time to make these changes. You will only be able to come out better (unless you are a real spammer, and in this case I say to you: boo .)
Thanks to Gabrielle Provost for her participation in the research.
For more information: Government of Canada – Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation