06/29/2014
CANADIAN ANTI SPAM LEGISLATION GOES INTO EFFECT CANADA DAY
So, have you been getting those messages from some of your email contacts asking you to confirm you want them to continue reaching out to you?
If you are…you aren’t alone.
This week could see the end of some unsolicited messages in both your email and in social media channels like here in Facebook and Twitter because as of Tuesday, July 1st, the Canadian Anti Spam Legislation (ACSL) comes into force.
Its aim is to reduce and eventually eliminate those unwanted emails that clutter up your mailbox every day. That means you should see a reduction in the incessant requests that you buy medication, diet pills, male enhancement devices and an assortment of other dodgy schemes and products.
Exactly how effective it will be is open to question as there’s some concern that offshore companies won’t follow the same rules and your long lost Nigerian prince will still be trying to contact you so they can borrow your bank account to park those millions of dollars that are in limbo in banks in their home countries.
That said, Canadian companies are for the most part paying attention and they have good reason to. . .the maximum fine (actually called a AMP or Administrative Monetary Penalty) for an individual is $1 million, and for a business, it is $10 million, per violation.
The bottom line is if you want to continue getting emails from some of the companies you are getting mail from now, send them back that approval message so they have permission to keep sending them. If not, don’t click on the approval button or look for the unsubscribe button that’s supposed to be on mail from Canadian companies.
To close this is just phase one of the plan….On January 15, 2015, sections of the Act related to the unsolicited installation of computer programs or software come into force. Read that as Spam, some malware and so called PUPs (potentially unwanted programmes) but more on that later.
Still got a problem to report… try going to the Spam Reporting Centre =- http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/h_00017.html .
Happy computing.
Stan
Tay Valley Systems
