CASL Puts Control of Communication in Your Hands

Whether you are a sender or receiver of marketing emails, you may have heard of the new regulations concerning unsolicited emails, the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). So what do you need know about this and what is Esri Canada doing to ensure we are in compliance?

Senders and receivers of email communications need to be aware that as of July 1, 2014, the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) will be in effect. The aim of this legislation is to help Canadians avoid spam and other electronic threats. Over the last few months I have been receiving communications from a number of organizations that I have a business relationship with, requesting my permission to continue receiving information from them. I expect to hear from many more as we approach the July 1 deadline.

You may be wondering what this new legislation means to you (as a customer). Once the law is in force, organizations will generally be prohibited from sending you commercial electronic messages (CEMs) without your consent.  Although you may have subscribed or provided consent in the past, many organizations are reconfirming this permission to ensure you still want to hear from them. This explains why I (and likely you) have already received emails from various companies – they are being proactive in trying to maintain their database by asking us to agree to continue receiving information from them.

I turned to Esri Canada’s Web and Digital Marketing team manager, Colleen Raymond, to find out how her team has been preparing for the new legislation.

"We began this process some time ago. By keeping up to date on trends in email marketing, consulting with various regulatory resources, attending information sessions and facilitating many internal meetings, we have put together a plan to ensure compliance.  In addition to cleaning up our database, we had to determine the best way to confirm that our audience wants to continue to hear from us.  This also led to the implementation of a Communication Preference Centre where users can subscribe to and select the information they want to receive from us, whether it’s all news or only specific training or product updates."

If you currently receive email communication from Esri Canada, be sure to watch your inbox over the next few weeks for our request for your permission to keep you on our list so that you can stay up-to-date on the latest news and valuable information including events, training, product information and more.

At the end of the day, hopefully this new legislation will help keep all of our inboxes a little cleaner and ensure that we receive less spam. However, it’s important that you do respond to a request to continue receiving communications from a company you do want to continue hearing from in the future. The other benefit is that, like Esri Canada, more companies may now offer you the power to choose which specific topics you want to hear about so you can tailor the email you do receive to your interests.

Find out more about CASL at fightspam.gc.ca.