Workshop in Richmond Hill offers Canadian Anti-Spam Law refresher

Yorkregion.com
May 8, 2015
By Lisa Queen

Last year about this time, you may have been inundated with emails about Canada’s anti-spam legislation.

Companies were eager before Canada Day, the day the legislation went into effect, to get your permission to continue sending you emails.

The law prohibits sending electronic messages by email, social media and cell phone text messages without the recipient’s consent.

It also prohibits the use of false or misleading claims in online marketing and prevents the collection of electronic addresses contrary to federal laws or for other unauthorized purposes.

But after the barrage of pre-July 1 consent-seeking emails last year, the issue appears to fallen off the radar screen and email users may once again be receiving messages from companies to which they haven’t provided consent, Javed Khan said.

That doesn’t mean the issue has gone away, however, said Khan, president and founder of EMpression, a marketing services company based in Aurora and an accredited local expert for Constant Contact, a Massachusetts marketing software company.

“It’s fizzled out but it’s real,” he said.

In the last year, a Quebec human resources firm has been fined $1.2 million and an online dating service has been fined $50,000 for contravening the legislation.

On Tuesday, Khan will host a free refresher course on the law for business leaders and employees.

“You don’t want to be that third company that gets into the news and gets fined,” he said.

The workshop begins at 10 a.m. at the Richmond Hill Public Library at 1 Atkinson St. at Yonge Street and Major Mackenzie Drive.