The new bill C-28 affect us all. You will need to make adjustments in your lists.
You must know if the people to whom you are sending newsletter gave you their consent. There is 2 types of consent; implied consent and express consent.
Implied consent :
Any persons who have made a purchase from your business is considered to have given you his implied consent for a period of 2 years. Any person who have requested information or quote is considered as have given implied consent for a period of 6 months. Other examples of implied agreement: all people with whom you have a personal relationship, e-mail addresses can be found on a business card or publicly displayed which has a link with your industry.
You can continue emailing them until there consent expired.
Express consent :
Any persons that have allowed you to send them email either orally, in writing or by clicking a link of acceptance or registration.
If you are not able to prove the type of consent that you have and provide proof, it would be best to send them an email asking them to accept your mail (opt-in). So all those who have answered yes will be considered to have given their express consent. Express consent never expires, you have to, however, allow the person to remove consent at the moment they want to, through an unsubscribe link that will be present in each of your email.
Sending an OPT-in email
We will be happy to send requests for consent to your current address emails. Just let us know which lists need to confirm their consent. We will create new lists that will automatically request for consent.
New lists
If you enter new addresses manually, consider the new law. Create a list of “Customer”, “Quote”, “Request”, “Public eMail”. Then you will use the custom fields and segments to date listings entries. As implied agreement has an expiration date, it is important to know when they gave you the agreement unless you have managed to get their express consent meanwhile.
Doubts
In case of doubt, if you cannot prove your relationship, send a request for consent. Remember to keep all your evidence; you may have to demonstrate those evidences.
