Another News Comment:

NEW LAW WON’T STOP OVERSEAS SPAMMERS
IRN-SPAM-PACUNLIFFE
Feb 28th 2007 5:35am
 
Govt passes laws clamping down on spam, but admits it will not stop overseas spam

The Government is confident the law now has the teeth to deal with the spam afflicting New Zealand computer users, but admits it cannot stop spam originating from overseas.

Parliament passed the Unsolicited Electronic Messages, or Anti-Spam, Bill last night 118 votes to two.

Communications Minister David Cunliffe says the legislation will allow New Zealand to join the global fight against spam as international co-operation is needed to block its sources.  He says the Act bans people from using address harvesting software or a harvested address list to send unsolicited commercial electronic messages.

Critics say it will do nothing to deter overseas spammers but Communications Minister David Cunliffe says it was designed to stop New Zealand spammers and over time should reduce spam in entering inboxes by five to 10 percent.  There will be a six month transition period before the law takes effect.
Source: Newstalk ZB
Credit: Newstalk ZB

Press Release:

Minister for Information Technology

Parliament has passed a new law to fight the  avalanche of spam clogging Kiwi inboxes, says Information Technology Minister David Cunliffe.

The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 aims to prevent New Zealand becoming a haven for spammers by prohibiting unsolicited commercial electronic messages and requiring senders of commercial electronic messages to include accurate sender information and a functional unsubscribe facility.

“This legislation enables Kiwis to join the global fight against spam,” Mr Cunliffe said. “International cooperation to identify, shut down or block the sources of spam is an important part our anti-spam strategy.

“Unsolicited commercial electronic messages, commonly known as spam, are estimated to make up around 80 per cent of all email traffic worldwide. Spam clogs networks, reduces productivity and is often used for scams and malicious cyber-attacks.”

The act prohibits persons from using address-harvesting software or a harvested-address list in connection with the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages.

It applies to all emails, texts and instant messages that market or promote goods, services, and other schemes of a commercial or dishonest nature.

“There is a six-month transition period before the law takes effect,” said Mr Cunliffe. “This will give organisations a reasonable period of time to ensure their email practices and databases comply with the act.

“This law is another important step towards greater Internet security. It will clamp down on spam of a domestic origin and provide a platform for seeking an international agreement to fight spam world-wide.

“While the government does not pretend this new law alone will solve the spam problem, it will enable us to fight New Zealand-sourced spam and enter into international agreements concerning international enforcement of anti-spam legislation, sharing of information between national enforcement agencies, and the pursuit of cross-border complaints concerning spam.

“It is important that New Zealand is not seen as a soft touch or safe haven by spammers.”

Wow! This is a very very interesting web page that everyone should read to understand how spammers avoid the walls we put up to protect ourselves.

I always wondered the purpose of the blank emails that come into my mail box. No subject heading, no from address, no content - whats the point silly spammers?? Well after you read the tricks on the web page you will know it is a very smart way of testing if an email address is valid.

Spammers are skilled at their job - do I respect them? Well I respect their skill and knowledge but thats it. They have forced all of us in the commerical email space to look at our ethics and practices and thats a good thing.

Spammers take advantage of people who are naive in the ways of the Internet and thus end up giving their hard earned dollars to scams. I don’t respect that and I consider it criminal. At the end of the day we need to educate the Internet users not to buy anything off spammers because unless people stop buying off them there will always be spammers.

Click here to read the article about spammers tricks.

The bill is about to go through its 3rd reading within “The House” which means Parliament. This looks like there is a very good chance the legislation will become law very soon.

Click here for some more info on the movements of the bill through Parliament.

It is not really 1 question but about 3. As the legislation draws nearer to becoming law more and more questions come to the surface. Below are questions our clients have asked us. At this stage we are researching with our law firm partners for any possible answers.

Questions:

1. If a Mobilize Mail client sends out an email on behalf of their client will they be in breach of the law if the mailing list they send to contains harvested email addresses but the Mobilize Mail client did not know before sending?
2. If a Mobilize Mail client sends out an email on behalf of their client to a mailing list they know contains harvested emails will they be in breach of the law?
3. Does a business or person who sends out emails on behalf of other businesses or individuals have a responsibility to check whether the email addresses have not been harvested or in the case of sending out a promotional message have had prior consent from the person responsible for the electronic address (or by any person who uses that address); ?

Interesting and valid questions. I will be researching with our business partner law firm and get back to you.

The New Zealand Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill draws closer to becoming law within New Zealand and all businesses who send email to their customers should now be looking at their current email practices.

Why Should You Be Concerned About the Anti-Spam Law?
Now you might not care or believe that the new anti-spam law will affect your business but how would you deal with a person who uses the internet to launch a full scale war against you and your business by posting everywhere they can that you are a spammer and your business earns a profit by spamming people? Your brand suffers and you start losing business and the only thing you did was send the person an email after their email address was entered into your website requesting more information from your business. Does this sound absurd? No, it happens frequently and if you want a real life example of a reputable company who faced this issue click on the article link in the resources section below.

What Action Do You Need To Take Now?
I suggest you commence reviewing your current email marketing processes and to ensure you are complaint because there are people out there that will use the anti-spam law to justify their actions for attempting to destroy your brand and reputation.

This article is about helping you start cleaning up your email marketing processes in readiness for the new law - don’t forget the law is not only about protecting the rights of the email recipient but also the email sender - that’s you.

I forecast the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill will become law in 2007 probably near or in the last quarter of 2007 so it is time start thinking about compliance today!

The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill Explained
My interpretation of the bill suggests that when it becomes law Businesses and Individuals alike will have six months to get their email processes and systems compliant. That is not a lot time to turn processes around in my humble opinion. I predict it will take most businesses a minimum of three months to clean up their current mailing lists and seek consent from existing customers then upgrading or implementing systems to help with compliance such as keeping records of subscribers consenting to receive email and processing unsubscribe requests may stretch that timeframe out further.

The Bill if passed in its current form will prohibit the sending of “commercial electronic messages” unless the recipient has consented to receive the messages BEFORE a message is sent.

The term “commercial electronic message” includes an electronic message (an email, text, instant message, but not a voice call or facsimile) that markets or promotes goods, services, land, or business opportunities. The law will apply to messages with links to another message or website that is commercial.

The sender must be able to prove that consent has been given by the recipient. The consent can either be:

• “express” - this form of consent can be given by the person responsible for the electronic address (or by any person who uses that address);
• “inferred” - from the conduct, business and other relationships of the persons concerned.
  The Bill is not specific as to when the consent can be reasonably “inferred” and when it cannot. However, regulations may be introduced which provide further guidance on where to draw the line; and
• “deemed” - this applies where a person’s electronic address is published in an official or business capacity. For example, an email address on a business website will be “deemed” consent so long as the message sent is relevant to the business or role of the person responsible for that address. However, there will be no deemed consent if the website expressly states that the person responsible for the address does not wish to receive unsolicited electronic messages.

Where to Start?
To help you on your way here is an important task we give our customers who engage us to improve their email marketing processes.

Who or what is currently sending commercial emails in your business?

If I asked you if you knew exactly how many emails your customers and prospects receive from your business per month would you know? Each department of your business may be sending emails to your customers and this email communication needs to be assessed for compliance.

The task here is to identify every type of email you send to your clients as a Business and review the content. Look for:

A) Any promotional content within the message that gets sent to your clients. If you find that type of content then you may need to get permission from your client unless of course you have done so already (I hear a Tui Ad!).

B) Does the email contain contact details for your business and who authorised the sending of that message? If not you will need to add this information as the law will require that the message clearly identifies the person who authorises sending the message. Even if the message is not promotional in its content this is still good practice to inform the recipient.

C) If the email is sent to a mailing list say your monthly newsletter then does it provide an unsubscribe link or information on how to unsubscribe within the content. The bill is very vague on this requirement. All it seems to state is:

“unless the sender and the receiver agree otherwise, all messages must contain a functional unsubscribe facility that allows the recipient (at no cost) to inform the sender that no unsolicited electronic messages should be sent.”

To be safe I would add an unsubscribe link or unsubscribe statement within all these types of messages.

D) Is there any automated systems within your business that send out emails? For example does your merchant system send out an automated receipt upon online payment? Does that system send out emails to clients or prospects?

We had one client who told us that they found by accident an outdated promotion of a product (that they did not sell anymore) within a “receipt of transaction” email that was sent to the purchaser. The way they found out was a person rang them and wanted to take advantage of the “special deal” in the email!

Once you have identified all the commercial emails sent via your business review the content and check if any mention of promoting goods and/or services is present. If so decide if it should be within the content or not. If you do believe the promotional content is required you may need to seek consent from the recipient.

Summary
By starting to identify who you are sending information to and which department of your business is sending commercial email you are well on the way to identifying where compliance needs to happen.

There are many more tasks that you will need to do for compliance, however taking this action is a good starting point.

Resources
Court sides with alleged ‘vacation’ spammer
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6138874.html

Anti Spam Compliance Solutions For You & Your Business

To see how we can help you and your business comply with the NZ Anti-SPAM Act click here

Well its Round 2 of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill run through Parliament.

I am very happy that they have removed the “Promotional Messages” concept which seemed like an absolute nightmare in regards to business understanding what constitutes a promotional email. Plus - how on earth would a government staff member be able to decide if a message was promotional?

Another thing they wiped from the legislation after the first reading was forcing the ISP’s to process all SPAM complaints - Yeah Right! If this requirement went through to law not only would the poor ISP’s have to worry about their clogged mail servers but also spend time communicating with their customers who submitted a SPAM complaint. Can you imagine how many of those complaints are actually subscribers who forgot that they had signed up to the mailing list 3 months ago.

We are currently working with a top law firm in New Zealand who are watching the process of the legislation through Parliament and will provide us with information as it comes to hand. I will then past it onto you via this blog.

We have already a few questions come from our New Zealand based customers. I have provided some of the questions below.

1) So is there any form of electronic message in regards to “sales” content that a marketer can still send after the bill as been passed? Maybe the “promotional message” category provides this?

2) Is there any government estimate on how much it will cost a business to conform to the new legal requirements?

3) How can a subscriber report me? What is the legal process for charging me and do I get a warning for first time offence?

4) Is there a way I can contact the government officials responsible for this legislation to voice by opinion?

5) Is it correct that any email I send my “opt-out” subscribers that contains even the smallest amount of sales is a commercial message and falls within the law? What about the sales message in a confirmation email for someone who purchases a product or service? Maybe this is “inferred”

6) Do I have to keep permission details sent by my opt-out subscribers who I contacted and they gave permission for me to keep sending emails just incase the subscriber then reports me to the government? How long do I have to keep this permission detail?

7) How have other email marketers dealt with this? (a question that will arise closer to the date when the legislation becomes law)

An interesting report on how fonts can create a perception in the subscribers mind on the author and the email content. The study showed a number of interesting facts but unless you get really excited reading scientific documents full of big words and math just read the summary below.

“Summary: This study investigated the effect that a font has on the reader’s perception of an email. Based on a previous study by Shaikh, Chaparro, and Fox (2006), a sample email message was presented in three fonts (Calibri, Comic Sans, and Gigi). The three chosen fonts represented a high, medium, and low level of congruency for email messages. The least congruent typeface (Gigi) resulted in different perceptions of the email document and its author. However, no significant differences were found between the moderately and highly congruent fonts. ”

We also recommend using the following “Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif” which seem to work quite well for most email content.

Here is the link to the report if you feel reading the 8 pages - I tried but the summary had the best bits.

As a bonus here is another report by the same authors which I have to admit not reading yet but the title sounds good “Perception of Fonts: Perceived Personality Traits and Uses”. Click here to read.

Found this interesting book on the net. I will order it as it looks very interesting. Here is the books description on Oreilly

“The mounting onslaught of email pitches for porn, pills, and penis enlargement has some techno-pundits declaring that spam is on the verge of destroying the Internet. In Spam Kings, author and veteran investigative journalist Brian S. McWilliams delivers a compelling account of the cat-and-mouse game played by spam entrepreneurs (including the notorious Davis Wolfgang Hawke, “Dr. Fatburn,” and Scott Richter) in search of easy fortunes and the cyber-vigilantes who are trying to stop them. ”

Click here for more info on Oreilly