Is my blog subject to Canada's new anti-SPAM legistlation goes into effect?

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  karencole · Member · Jun 30, 2014 at 1:36 pm

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  Beginning tomorrow, Canada’s new anti-spam legislation goes into effect. Although you are U.S.-based, perhaps you know whether I have to ask my readers to continue to receive my blog, so that it won’t go to spam. Some people just check it occasionally, but I think I have a number of regular followers who receive it automatically each time I post. My website is http://www.karenlcole.wordpress.com Thanks.

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  kokkieh · Staff · Jun 30, 2014 at 2:08 pm

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  We had a discussion on this over the weekend. See this thread: https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/removing-subscribers-due-to-canadas-new-anti-spam-laws-casl?replies=6#post-1920967

  Short version: The law is to prevent organisations from adding people’s email addresses to mailing lists without their consent and then send them unsolicited messages of a commercial nature.

  Notifications from your blog are not necessarily commercial in nature, but more importantly, you did not add any emails to a mailing list and are not sending any emails. Your readers requested to receive email notifications, they made that request of WordPress.com, not of you, and they have full control over that subscription – every email contains a link to the subscriptions management page on wordpress.com where they can unsubscribe at any time.

  I’m not a legal expert, but I reckon this is how any reasonable person would interpret it. If you’re really unsure, rather check with a lawyer.

  To stay on the safe side you might publish a post where you acknowledge, in light of the new legislation, that many of your readers are receiving email notifications and remind them that they signed up for these emails and can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the email.