Now some of you just probably said, I thought Canada had one already!?

Canada has always had their privacy regulation "Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act" (PIPEDA) which typically controlled how someone could use your email address, but they never have had a law that made it illegal to send spam in Canada.

Bill S-202 Introduced by Senator Yoine Goldstein would crack down on spam by prohibiting the sending of commercial emails to Canadians without their prior consent. The bill would also ban practices such as email harvesting, ban phishing attacks, and would require all commercial email messages to have a clear subject line, accurate contact information, an easy way to unsubscribe. It would also give Internet Service Providers (ISP) with the authority to block, filter and refuse spam messages - even deny service to those who have been convicted under the new law or thinks the messages that might be sent could be prohibited under the new law. Businesses who also knew they were being promoted by spam would also be liable unless they took action to stop the messages or notify authorities.

Exemptions would be made for charities, political parties, polling firms and businesses that have a pre-existing relationship with an email user. These groups would still be required to allow users to opt out of further message.

Penalties range from a fine of up to $500,000 (or two years in jail), to a fine of up to $1.5 million (or five years in jail) for repeated offences. Additional fines equal to the profits from a spamming operation could also be imposed. Those harmed by spam would also be empowered to seek damages from the perpetrators in court.

What's interesting about this was the that Facebook just used the U.S Can-Spam act to prosecute a Canadian spammer.

-Dennis

Eloqua

Don't Just Send, Deliver!

Comments

As nice as this would be to see - it'll be tough to get anything accomplished this year without Parliament. they are currently on hiatus until the end of January.

Canadian Politics - finally fun again...

Matt Vernhout

bill s202 was replaced by bill s220 and it has serious flaws that need to be fixed yet according to this page:

http://www.lumbercartel.ca/law/canada/s-220/