Anti-Spam Policy

Unacceptable Uses of the emailpostcards.com Service

The following list outlines many things which you may NOT do while using the emailpostcards.com service. Doing any one of these things may result in the suspension or termination of your emailpostcards.com account, immediately and without warning.

By using the emailpostcards.com Service, you explicitly agree NOT to:

  1. Send email with an invalid “From” or “Reply-to” address. All messages posted to your list must contain valid email addresses and you must be responsive to all replies from Subscribers to your list, including direct unsubscribe requests. You may not refuse or ignore unsubscribe requests from members of your list.
  2. Use the com service to encourage or facilitate unsolicited surveys, contests, pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing or any illegal activities.
  3. Intentionally send commercial email from a foreign or domestic computer that you do not have authorization to use.
  4. Harass, threaten, embarrass or cause distress, unwanted attention or discomfort to a person or entity.
  5. Post, transmit or distribute sexually explicit images or other content that is deemed by com to be inappropriate.
  6. Impersonate any person, including but not limited to, a representative of com or an information provider, or communicate under a false name or a name that you are not entitled or authorized to use.
  7. Intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including but not limited to any regulations having the force of the law.

The CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003)

The CAN-SPAM Act, a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

Despite its name, the CAN-SPAM Act doesn’t apply just to bulk email. It covers all commercial messages, which the law defines as “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service,” including email that promotes content on commercial websites. The law makes no exception for business-to-business email. That means all email – for example, a message to former customers announcing a new product line – must comply with the law.

Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000, so non-compliance can be costly. But following the law isn’t complicated. Here’s a rundown of CAN-SPAM’s main requirements:

  1. Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
  2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
  3. Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
  4. Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
  5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.
  6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
  7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.

Compliance under Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (“CASL”)

If you send emails to Canadian recipients, whether you are located in Canada or not, as of July 1, 2014 you may be subject to An Act to promote the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy by regulating certain activities that discourage reliance on electronic means of carrying out commercial activities, and to amend the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Act, the Competition Act, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and the Telecommunications Act (informally known as Canada’s Anti-Spam Law, CASL).

If you send Commercial Electronic Messages to Canadian recipients, you are most likely subject to CASL regulation. Commercial Electronic Messages (“CEM”s) are defined as any electronic messages including emails which encourage participation in a commercial activity, without regard to an expectation of profit. There are certain exceptions, but they are limited.

IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE EMAILS YOU SEND USING EMAILPOSTCARDS.COM ARE SUBJECT TO CASL REGULATION. Failure to comply with CASL may result in severe administrative monetary penalties (up to $10,000,000 for organizations). As specified in the Terms of Use, emailpostcards.com shall in no way be held responsible for your violation(s) of CASL. If you are unsure whether your emails are subject to CASL, we suggest you consult an attorney. More information about CASL generally can also be found at the Government of Canada’s Anti-Spam website.

Compliance under CASL is more stringent than under other anti-spam laws, and more stringent than the general guidelines given further up in this policy. As a general rule, to be compliant under CASL you must: (1) have obtained valid consent to send a recipient a CEM and (2) your CEM must contain certain information, including an unsubscribe mechanism with certain requirements.

Valid Consent under CASL

When collecting an email address (for example via a web form or paper form) for your mailing list, the following information must be present for the consent to be valid under CASL:

  • The name of person or organization asking for consent;
  • The specific purpose for which you are obtaining consent (e.g. “receive offers from Company Name”, “Receive Company Name’s newsletter”);
  • A notice that the subscriber can withdraw their consent at any time; and
  • Contact information, which must include a physical mailing address AND an electronic communications method, whether email or phone or a web page contact form. A hyperlink to a web page with all this contact information is acceptable.

If you are seeking consent on behalf of another organization, that third party organization must be identified as well.

Content Requirements for a CEM under CASL

Every CEM sent must include the following information:

  • The name of the person or organization sending the CEM, or if the CEM is being sent on behalf of another person / organization, the name of the person / organization on whose behalf the CEM is sent;
  • If the CEM is sent on behalf of another person / organization, a statement saying so;
  • Contact information, which must include a physical mailing address AND an electronic communications method, whether email or phone or a web page contact form. A hyperlink to a web page with all this contact information is acceptable; and
  • A valid unsubscribe mechanism.

Valid Unsubscribe Mechanism

In order for the unsubscribe mechanism to conform to CASL requirements, it must:

  • Enable the recipient (at no cost) to readily remove themselves from the mailing list;
  • Stay valid for a minimum of 60 days after the CEM has been sent; and
  • Process requests without delay and be effective not more than 10 business days after the request is made.
  • If you use the unsubscribe mechanism provided by com, it will conform to these requirements.

If you have determined that your emails are subject to CASL regulation, you must adhere to all these requirements.

Other Anti-Spam Legislation

Depending on where you operate, you may be subject to additional anti-spam laws in force in certain countries. It is your responsibility to determine whether you are subject to your national anti-spam legislation, and if you are, to be compliant with said legislation. As outlined in the Terms of Use, emailpostcards.com shall in no way be held responsible for your violation of any anti-spam law which may be applicable to you, and may terminate your account for violation(s) of said laws.

Unsubscribe

If you have received an email from one of our clients and wish to be unsubscribed, please forward it to antispam@emailpostcards.com.