CANSPAM Act of 2003 and How it Will
Affect Our Marketing Campaigns
Government Decisions - Basic Decisions About Findings to Establish
Guidelines for the CANSPAM Act of 2003
After gathering all of these findings, the Congress made some decisions
about unsolicited commercial email. The decisions are as follows,
copied, and pasted directly from the act.
- (1) There is a substantial government interest in regulation
of commercial electronic mail on a nationwide basis;
- (2) Senders of commercial electronic mail should not mislead
recipients as to the source or content of such mail; and
- (3) Recipients of commercial electronic mail have a right
to decline to receive additional commercial electronic mail
from the same source.
Thus far, you will notice that the decisions are based upon human
rights and our rights to determine what types of email we are exposed
to. Whether or not it should be the government that enforces these
rights, or the commercial companies self policing their own ranks
is of little relevance here. There are many arguments on this topic.
We are here to look at the law and how it applies to each of us
in our own endeavors in self-employment.
What this all means so far is there should be some established
relationship between the email initiator and the receiver. Does
that mean you can't send out a one-time message trying to gain additional
clients? Not necessarily. Within the law, they outline procedures
that should be used when sending commercial email. The biggest thing
is to comply with the decisions outlined above. When creating your
email, do not mislead the reader. Conspicuously identify the email's
commercial nature in the subject line. Make sure you send from a
current email address that allows the receiver to opt-out. Either
use a program that automatically removes the receiver, or make sure
the opt-out address is accessible so you can manually remove them.
Make sure the opt-out link or email opt-out link is prominently
displayed in ALL commercial email you send. If you profit from your
email list, and you sell this information to others as an opt-in
list, you must also make sure to remove them from any lists you
sell to others.
If you are going to establish an opt-in list, you could use the
one time email with an option for them to subscribe to your list.
I would suggest that you establish a privacy policy on your site
and link directly to it in any such emails you send to gain opt-in
customers. Of course, if they follow the opt-out conditions, then
I would suggest you immediately remove them and send no further
email to their address. When you get opt-in responses, I would suggest
that you keep records of their information. At least keep a list
of the email they opted in with, the date of the opt-in, and a boilerplate
of the email you used to get them to opt-in. If you were able to
capture the IP address and time, then I would also suggest that
you include that information in your list as well. That way in the
event you are accused of violating the act, you have proof to show
the relationship and how it was established with the receiver.
Your privacy policy should address what information you collect
from you visitor, or from people that subscribe to you email list.
It should also include any third party vendors you work with on
your marketing campaigns should they be given any of the information
you collect. These are basics for your privacy policy page and are
not all-inclusive. It is a starting point that will allow you to
conform to new regulations. You can look around at other sites privacy
policy ideas, or check out these resources:
The above section applies to the CANSPAM Act of 2003 where the
conditions of affirmative consent apply. Affirmative consent definition
copied and pasted directly from the act is as follows:
- (1) The recipient expressly consented to receive the message,
either in response to a clear and conspicuous request for such
consent or at the recipient's own initiative;
- (2) And if the message is from a party other than the party
to which the recipient communicated such consent, the recipient
was given clear and conspicuous notice at the time the consent
was communicated that the recipient's electronic mail address
could be transferred to such other party for the purpose of
initiating commercial electronic mail messages.
Back
to Table of Contents
Classifying
Commercial Email (Article Continues)
Canspam Compliance Company Interviews
Other Legal Articles:
Related E-Book Downloads
By James R. Sanders
January 06, 2003
If you have any suggestions to add to this article,
or have ideas for articles you would like to read, please feel free to contact
us and let us know. You can also feel free to contact us about questions you
might have when it comes to practical webmaster or website design issues in
today's online market. We welcome constructive criticism and want to know what
our visitors think of our site and services. You can either contact
us here, or click the contact link at the bottom of the page. Thanks in
advance, and we look forward to hearing from you.
About the Author
James R. Sanders is the owner of Sanders
Consultation Group Plus. He has been a webmaster and website designer since
1997. He has also been involved in self employment ventures since 1992. He is
presently a contributing author of NewbieHangout,
and has been published through WebProNews
and 4Rankings.com.
His writing is targeted to webmasters, would be webmasters, website designers,
would be website designers, self employed, or those researching information
looking for solutions to questions associated with design, business operations,
and promotion today. His goal is to provide practical information based upon
his years of experience to help webmasters, website designers, and self employed
people achieve their goals in today's competitive global market. You can subscribe
to his free newsletters at SCGP
- Newsletter and become a member of the SCGP Portal. If you like SCGP content
and would like to use it on your site, then check out our content
agreement and terms of use. Use our articles on your site without the hassles
of writing your own content. Get back to the things you could use your time
better for, like site promotion.
Back To Webmaster Resource Area Main
Comment About This Article
Comments limited to 1000 characters
This page last updated:
Wednesday, October 19, 2005 11:35 AM
EST
|
