On June 30, 2006 Canada’s “Do Not Call Registry” came into force through the CRTC. The law was enacted in response to the annoying problem of telemarketers interrupting our dinner hour. Apparently, as Canadians, we’re just too polite to let a phone call go unanswered, even with call display, so we outlawed the practice of making the call. Pollsters, Charities and Political Parties are exempt from this law. From my cursory reading on the topic, the registry has been an unmitigated disaster. Surprise! Hey, didn’t they say that about the gun registry when they canned it? and aren’t we finally admitting that about the anti-pot laws?
On July 1st 2014 the government of Canada enacted the Canadian anti-spam legislation (CASL) with a 3-year transition period that applies to all commercial emails. Yes, that includes this newsletter, and NO, there are no exemptions apart from personal emails. Somebody should let Maxime Bernier know that starting a new political party will not give him free licence to send emails to all his old buddies in the Conservative Party of Canada asking them to join his newly minted Peoples Party of Canada.
BTW – spam is not an acronym (although I thought it was). It actually does refer to the awful canned ham whose name has been commandeered to refer to junk or unsolicited e-mail.
Pardon the digression.
CASL is based on the premise that you, the recipient of a commercial email, are providing express consent to receive that email. I, as the sender of the email, can only send commercial emails to people who have asked to receive them. And, the onus is on me to be able to prove that you asked me to send you those emails. Saying you said I could, or me saying that I thought you wanted to receive my information does not count. Even if we’ve done business with each other does not constitute express consent.
Deloitte (the accounting firm) has characterized the legislation as “the toughest of it’s kind in the world”.
You may not be getting as many telemarketing calls or spam emails as you used too, but you may have noticed over the past few years that there are a lot more ads popping up in your searches on Google, Safari etc., and websites you visit. You may also have noticed the ever-increasing pervasiveness of social media and the advertising on these platforms.
Marketers are very savvy folks. They’ve got a message to get out and a job to do. Where there’s a will there’s a way regardless of the blockades and commandments the government might throw in their way.
Which brings me to the main point of this Blog.
I have no desire to SPAM anyone or have a dinner of SPAM with anyone, but in light of the new legislation after more than 4-years of posts, this is the last posting for this newsletter you will receive.
We are making the move over to a Social Media platform. I know this comes with a yuk factor, but it makes sense in today’s business environment if we want to get our message of a revolutionary new way to design and build out to a wider audience and continue to provide you with forward-thinking ideas.
I will continue to write and post blogs on these sites, but I’m also very excited about an exploration. I’ve started producing and posting regular video blogs. Video is the future of media on the web. In my mind, it goes hand-in-hand, that if we’re promoting the future way of designing and building we need to stay current ourselves in how we deliver that message.
We invite you to follow us on:
https://www.facebook.com/verto360/
My personal LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-lutowicz-a915586/
https://www.instagram.com/verto360/
I’m most excited about the video content on our YouTube channel where there are already over 25 videos posted. Please feel free to subscribe. https://www.youtube.com/user/lcsfurnishings
In writing this blog I had several insights/questions that I’d like to share with you:
- Can laws that attempt to regulate morality really ever be effective?
- I still get junk mail from Canada Post in my mailbox and junk mail dumped at the end of my laneway several times per month. Why is there not a law against this form of litter?
- Is there a connection, and/or progression between the rules governing telemarketing, spamming and social media (we’ve already heard rumours about legislation related to SM)? And if so, what is the intended goal? Or is the government, as I suspect, just reacting without any strategic objective in mind? Anything to be perceived as being progressive without actually having an objective.
Thanks for being subscribers to this newsletter. I am honoured that you’ve taken the time to read my blogs.
See you on the W3.
Oh, and don’t forget to visit our website for regular updates www.verto360.com
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