Marketers want anti-spam bill altered (CBC)

[Drew Wilson]

The Canadian Marketing Association is lobbying MPs to change an anti-spam bill so that consumers have to opt out of receiving commercial email messages, rather than opting in to get them.

In a message sent to its 800 corporate members — which include Costco, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Home Depot and Rogers — on Thursday, the CMA urged companies to get in touch with their local MPs to demand changes to the proposed legislation, which is expected to enter a critical phase on Monday.

The current draft of Bill C-27 will require a marketer to obtain a consumer's consent, whether implied or explicit, before sending them an email. The CMA says this clause will limit companies' ability to prospect for new customers or grow their businesses.

"CMA is urging MPs to clarify the legislation to ensure that marketers can continue to rent the lists of customers who have consented to have their contact information transferred to other organizations for marketing purposes," the message said.

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Let me guess: consumer rights are just a barrier to the ultimate goal of owning people.

[mountain_rage]

Wait, they just want it clarified if they can continue to use the list of people who consented??? If they consented they are allowed to continue to use the contact information. If this consent is consent due to lack of opposition, than they shouldn't be giving out those details to begin with. Hope the bills doesn't get changed, bunch of stupid corporations.

[Signa]

Canada is a democracy like the US, right? Shouldn't the people get to vote on this?

I mean, in America, the way it's supposed to work is that we elect some one to do the voting for us. Any politician who is doing his job correctly (read: none of them) will vote what the US citizens want. I'm guessing that about 90% of US citizens would laugh the marketers right out of the hearing for the changes to the bill.

[Drew Wilson]

That's actually one of the things that does surprise me about the US. The Americans have a Do Not Call list. I don't know how many loopholes there are in it, but Canadians pride themsleves on having rhobust privacy laws - yet we don't have a decent do not call registry.

I also recall a state or two having anti-spam legislation in the US. In one state, it was smacked down and rendered useless because a court deemed it unconstitutional. For all the privacy laws and consumer protections (I recall a few Americans calling us socialist on the US media), it's bizarre to realize Canada is actually falling behind the US with respect to spam (be it via phone or email)