We’re proponents of “opt-in” marketing — email and other contact a consumer requests. Unfortunately, as unwanted email continues to flood consumers’ Internet services, the Federal Trade Commission has just tightened up email restrictions.
Four new provisions to the federal government’s CAN-SPAM rule were approved by a 4-0 vote yesterday. The plain English version of the new provisions:
1) Someone sending email cannot require payment or additional information beyond the email address for a consumer to demand that their email be removed from the organization’s future efforts.
2) There are new ways to identify who sent an email if multiple organizations are advertising in that same email.
3) One for the businesses (and a good one too that we use): Organizations can provide a mailing address that is a post office box or similar postage handling service to identify the company’s location.
4) When is a person not a person? When a “person” is an email recipient. Email addresses, not people, are protected by CAN-SPAM.
On a related note, the folks at StopPoliticalCalls.org continue to do great work with their free list to tell politicians not to call. While the country’s attention is naturally focused on the presidential race, there will be many races in local and state governments and candidates who use “robo-calling” to automatically call consumers. These calls are NOT covered by the federal Do Not Call Registry.
When we last checked in with the folks at the free don’t call me registry, multiple political candiates and members of Congress had taken the organization’s pledge to not call consumers on the list. Those candidates are in states as diverse as Missouri, North Carolina, Kansas and Idaho. Even one of the companies supplying the service has agreed to honor consumer wishes.
It’s not too late to register free and make sure your phone number is protected from unwanted political spiels during dinner.
Posted under Privacy
This post was written by George Bounacos on May 13, 2008
