Thursday, June 26, 2014

Canada's Anti-Spam Law (CASL)

Is your inbox suddenly flooded with emails asking "Do you wish to continue receiving ..."?

For my Canadian followers the answer is likely yes. And by now you are probably well aware that on July 1, 2014, Canada's Anti-Spam Law (CASL) will come into force. CASL Regulations require companies to have consent from their customers before they are allowed to send them electronic marketing communications. Since I don't do electronic marketing (other than this on and off blog gig which you all have to actively opt into to view) and no clients were asking for advise, I wasn't too concerned with this new law.

But then last week I noticed that I was getting a lot of "undeliverable mail" notices. I ignored them for awhile thinking it was just some glitch but then I finally looked at a response and saw that the sender was actually one of MY email accounts. So was I sending out spam? Probably. Was it electronic marketing from a business? Possibly. If I didn't put a stop to it by July 1, would I be exposed to liability? Panic!

I fixed the problem but I can't help but wonder if this new law will have any effect on this kind of thing. I kind of doubt it.