Canada Passes New Anti-SPAM Bill: Better than CAN-SPAM?
by Kurt Fultz, Trusted by Lashback
Repost

Canada’s FISA (the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act) Bill went into law on December 15. Its new requirements apply to anyone sending Commercial Electronic Messsages from Canada or to someone in Canada. FISA will apply to Canadian and international organizations sending email, SMS, instant messaging and social media/networking communication.

The biggest difference between FISA and CAN-SPAM is FISA requires opt-in consent before marketers can send a CEM. FISA also accepts circumstances of implied consent, including when the sender has an existing business relationship with the recipient.

While CAN-SPAM requires a company postal address, FISA requires address information along with the identity of the person who is sending the email message. If the email is being sent on someone’s behalf other than the sender, the name of that person needs to be included.

There are similarities between FISA and CAN-SPAM. They both require easy and clear unsubscribe mechanisms. The unsubscribe requests must be honored within ten business days. Both guidelines say Marketers cannot use address harvesting or dictionary attacks to generate lists.

As the Federal Trade Commission and Commerce Department recently released reports on the best privacy practices, it is important that the government looks at ways to improve international cooperation. Creating unified privacy and compliance laws across different countries will create more focused marketing messages and an improve internet user experience.

FISA may not go into effect until September 2011. For more information on FISA along with an excellent guide on how to become compliant with the new law, head over to Return Path.

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