Consent, new email laws and doing business

I’m happy that we have some new anti-spam laws here in Canada. Spam has been a major bane of the interwebs. The first spam was sent, surprisingly, in 1978. Wow.

The new law is the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act and is a few years too late perhaps. But better late than never. And it’s possible that the new laws won’t really help stop spam, since most comes from overseas botnets.

But it’s cool that everyone is talking about consent. You need consent to mass email someone. And the onus is on the sender to prove consent. That’s pretty great.

It’s also pretty much obvious, but it’s surprising just how muddled everyone has been. Including me. When I find myself getting muddled, I refer back to these handy resources:

• Fear-Free Guide by Michael Geist
• FAQ by the CRTC
• Information for businesses: http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/h_00227.html

I’m reminded that consent is at the very foundation of doing business. And seen through the lens of emotional intelligence, consent enacts at least four important dimensions of EI:

• Empathy
• Social responsibility
• Interpersonal relationships
• Reality testing

So thank you CRTC, for making an effort to help business, and marketing, become more emotionally intelligent.

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