I must admit I have been vaguely aware that the Anti Spam Legislation was looming, but it was not until I started receiving MORE e-mail asking for my expressed consent to continuing receiving e-mail that generally remains unread, that I realized the time was upon us to comply.
Granted this is not really a Human Resource topic but it is an issue that is impacting small businesses. I have read several articles, and heard arguments for both sides of the coin. I also am annoyed and I wish to make my annoyance known through my blog, since clearly I cannot simply send out an e-mail to everyone I have ever come in contact with, unless I first send them another e-mail asking them if I can send them more e-mail. Geez, now I am just dizzy thinking about this.
This legislation is about 10 years too late as far as I can tell. By now, we all have spam filters, we have been educated to not click on links sent from Nigerian princes, and most of us have learned not to open attachments that come from unknown sources. Now, of course, this is the worst kind of spam, the stuff that does most damage to the uneducated, but the legislation will not protect any of us from THAT kind of spam. Nope, the spam it will be “protecting” us from is the type of spam that is infinitely less annoying than the crap that gets stuffed in our physical mailboxes every day. It is the e-newsletter from the local business in your neighbourhood that will be impacted, or the mostly relevant articles that your financial advisor sends out on occasion. The only businesses that are actually following this legislation appear to be the ones I wanted to hear from in the first place. But now, I have to actually do something more onerous than clicking delete.
Now, on the other side of the argument, I see that larger businesses do have some responsibility to ensure they are not taking advantage of their size and resources to send me daily reminders about their latest sales (yes, HBC, I am looking at you), but again, I am quite capable of clicking delete, and at some time, I was stupid enough to provide my e-mail address, so I feel I have to take responsibility for some of the junk in my inbox.
I am looking forward to hearing about the first fine levied under this legislation, I am betting it won’t be that nice broker that offered to help me release foreign funds if I simply send a registered cheque for $10,000.
Granted this is not really a Human Resource topic but it is an issue that is impacting small businesses. I have read several articles, and heard arguments for both sides of the coin. I also am annoyed and I wish to make my annoyance known through my blog, since clearly I cannot simply send out an e-mail to everyone I have ever come in contact with, unless I first send them another e-mail asking them if I can send them more e-mail. Geez, now I am just dizzy thinking about this.
This legislation is about 10 years too late as far as I can tell. By now, we all have spam filters, we have been educated to not click on links sent from Nigerian princes, and most of us have learned not to open attachments that come from unknown sources. Now, of course, this is the worst kind of spam, the stuff that does most damage to the uneducated, but the legislation will not protect any of us from THAT kind of spam. Nope, the spam it will be “protecting” us from is the type of spam that is infinitely less annoying than the crap that gets stuffed in our physical mailboxes every day. It is the e-newsletter from the local business in your neighbourhood that will be impacted, or the mostly relevant articles that your financial advisor sends out on occasion. The only businesses that are actually following this legislation appear to be the ones I wanted to hear from in the first place. But now, I have to actually do something more onerous than clicking delete.
Now, on the other side of the argument, I see that larger businesses do have some responsibility to ensure they are not taking advantage of their size and resources to send me daily reminders about their latest sales (yes, HBC, I am looking at you), but again, I am quite capable of clicking delete, and at some time, I was stupid enough to provide my e-mail address, so I feel I have to take responsibility for some of the junk in my inbox.
I am looking forward to hearing about the first fine levied under this legislation, I am betting it won’t be that nice broker that offered to help me release foreign funds if I simply send a registered cheque for $10,000.
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