While many consumers today assume they know the laws governing direct marketing, they are usually unaware that there are lines direct marketers can cross and the rules tend to get a little hazy. For instance, a telephone interviewer is able to call numbers on the National Do-Not-Call Registry, but a telemarketer is not. A financial institution can disclose account numbers to non-affiliate parties to market the same institution’s products or services, but not to non-affiliate parties that use the information to market themselves.
In the last few years, the Federal Trade Commission has set up laws to help protect the privacy of consumers. In 2001, the Gramm Leech Bliley Act was put into effect to protect the privacy of consumer and customer’s financial information. In 2004, new laws governing Spam were regulated and a National do-not-call-list appeared in 2005. These laws do not mean that direct marketers have no control over the limitations that govern them. In order to keep you in control of your direct marketing campaigns, American Name Services would like to offer you some do’s and don’ts of the new privacy laws that have been hitting direct marketers this century.
Email is one of the latest direct marketing mediums that has been hit with more federal regulations. The “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing” (CAN-SPAM) Act took effect on January 1, 2004. It covers companies emails whose primary purpose is to advertise and promote their products and services, including a website. According to the FTC, the CAN-SPAM Act simply states that “unsolicited commercial e-mail messages must be able to be identified as an advertisement, include opt-out instructions and the sender’s physical address”. It also prohibits the use of deceptive subject lines and false headers in such messages. Consumers must be able to know who the message is coming from, what it is about, and have the option of replying to the sender or given a means to opt out if they want off of that sender’s email list.
Email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship is not covered under this Act. A couple examples would be, sending an email receipt to a customer who has purchased an item, or a reminder to a reservation that has been made.