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| What is Spam? Australian regulations |
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Spam laws were introduced into Australia from April 11, 2004. This legislation covers more than just emails. In short, to be considered spam, the message must have been sent without the recipient's consent.
The Spam Act 2003 prohibits sending, or causing to be sent, unsolicited commercial electronic messages that have an Australian link. It is prohibited to send commercial electronic messages to a non-existent address that would have an Australian link if the address existed. It is prohibited to aid, abet or otherwise be party to a contravention of the legislation.
The legislation is intended to prohibit:
· spam originating in Australia being sent to any destination;
· spam originating overseas being sent to an address accessed in Australia.
Limited exceptions to the Spam Act apply in respect of currently accepted government, business and commercial practices, such as:
· Messages from government bodies;
· Messages from registered political parties;
· Messages from charities;
· Messages from religious organisations;
· Messages from educational institutions directed to attending and former students and their households;
· where the message relates to goods or services, and the body authorising the message is the supplier of the goods or services. In addition, purely factual messages are excluded from coverage of the legislation. The sender must still include accurate information about the message's originator.
The Spam Act 2003 requires that all commercial electronic messaging contain a functional "unsubscribe" facility to allow people to opt out from receiving messages from that source in the future. The unsubscribe facility must be reasonably likely to be able to receive and act on unsubscribe messages for a period of 30 days after the sending of the message. A request to opt out must be honoured within five working days to avoid future breaches of the legislation. Acceptable examples of the unsubscribe facility will be specified by regulation and may vary between technologies.
We recommend that all clients review their email strategies to ensure full compliance prior to the implementation date of the Spam Act 2003.
We remind clients that we do not endorse the sending of unsolicited bulk email and refer to our service level agreements for your acceptable use policy.
Further information pertaining to this legislation can be obtained from: http://www.gnl.com.au/
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