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It's been a long time in coming, and the bill
isn't necessarily all everyone hoped it would
be. But as of Jan. 1, 2004, The CAN-SPAM Act of
2003 marshalled U.S. federal law against spammers
- and many say it's at least a start. The CAN-SPAM
Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited
Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements
for those who send commercial email, spells out
penalties for spammers and companies involved
in sending out electronic communication via email.
If you're a transportation or logistics organization
involved in using e-mail as part of your marketing
and communication initiatives, make sure to follow
the new rules! If not, you could be asking for
trouble.
What is CAN-SPAM?
Essentially, CAN-SPAM is an "opt-out"
law. For most purposes, permission of the e-mail
recipient is not required, but if a recipient
wants to unsubscribe or opt-out, you'd better
stop sending e-mails or be subject to severe fines.
In short, CAN-SPAM:
- Bans false or misleading header information.
Your email's "From," "To,"
and routing information - including the original
domain name and email address - must be accurate
and identify the person who initiated the e-mail.
- Prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject
line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents
or subject matter of the message.
- Requires that your e-mail give recipients an
opt-out method. You must provide a return e-mail
address or another Internet-based response mechanism
that allows a recipient to ask you not to send
future email messages to that email address, and
you must honor the requests. You may create a
"menu" of choices to allow a recipient
to opt out of certain types of messages, but you
must include the option to end any commmercial
messages from the sender.
- Requires that commercial email be identified
as an advertisement and include the sender's valid
physical postal address. Your message must contain
clear and conspicuous notice that the message
is an advertisement or solicitation, and that
the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial
email from you.
An Opt-Out Approach to Spam: Your Compliance
Guidelines
Make sure your unsubscribe system works.
Better yet, allow people to select what kinds
of messages they wish to receive from you. That
way, you may keep some people that would opt-out
entirely if they didn't have a choice. However,
many professional marketers still recommend using
a confirmed or double opt-in system. It is the
only way you'll be able to prove that people gave
expressed consent to receive your email. Yes,
you may lose 30% of your new subscribers who never
confirm. But they weren't likely to be good customers
anyway. Bite the bullet and institute a confirmed
opt-in system so you'll be ahead of the curve.
What if you don't comply?
Each violation of the above provisions
set forth by the Federal Trade Commission is subject
to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial
email also is subject to law banning false or
misleading advertising. Additional fines are provided
for commercial emailers who not only violate the
rules described above, but also:
- "harvest" email addresses from Web
sites or Web services that have published a notice
prohibiting the transfer of email addresses for
the purpose of sending email
- generate email addresses using a "dictionary
attack" - combining names, letters, or numbers
into multiple permutations
- use scripts or other automated ways to register
for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial
email
- relay emails through a computer or network without
permission - for example, by taking advantage
of open relays or open proxies without authorization.
For full details from the FTC, click
here.
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