Respect Privacy Across Platforms

If you thought that the effort to regulate spam and enforce privacy laws was limited to the Internet and email, think again. Recent developments in Australia indicate that authorities are slowly beginning to clamp down on unsolicited communication, irrespective of the platform being used.

According to reports, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has imposed fines on telecom and media companies like Vodafone, Big Mobile and New Dialogue while issuing a firm warning to Coca-Cola about its spamming misadventures.

Vodafone has been asked to cough up $110,000 while New Dialogue has already paid $22,000 in fines. Big Mobile, for its part, has decided to independently pay recipients of unsolicited texts as compensation.

For Coca-Cola, the problem lay in the fact that their text campaigns did not tell recipients how they could get in touch with the company or unsubscribe from receiving more messages thus violating Australia’s Spam Act.

This case, once again, highlights the need for marketers across media to communicate with customers and prospects responsibly. Whether you’re sending a text or an email, always ensure that you are complying with the prevailing privacy and anti-spamming laws. Companies who don’t do this risk incurring heavy penalties and bad publicity for unsolicited text or email communication.

While it is not mandatory, we, at Benchmark Email, prefer that our customers use double opt-in email lists. This not only helps our customers create high quality email lists, but ensures that they stay on the right side of the law.

Doing things the right way may seem like hard work and an unnecessary overhead in the near term, but know that these measures will help you stay ahead in the long run.

So no matter whom you’re communicating with and what medium you are using, take a step back to make sure you’re playing by the rules.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,26330368-5014239,00.html