Can Spam Act of 2003 Compliance

CIBER is Can-Spam Compliant

The Can-Spam Act (S. 877) was passed by the Senate on November 25, 2003, and agreed to by the House of Representatives on December 8, 2003. The bill was signed by the President George W. Bush on December 16, 2003, and took effect on January 1, 2004.

Main Points of the Can-Spam Act

• Outlaws the use of false or misleading headers.
• Outlaws the use of deceptive subject lines.
• Requires a clear and conspicuous opt-out mechanism within every commercial email.
• Requires the inclusion of a valid physical postal address within every commercial email.

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) will be strict in their enforcement of the Can-Spam law and violators may be subject to “cease and desist” orders or penalties up to $11,000 per violation. Criminal prosecution is also possible in the case of egregious offenders, which can result in penalties such as fines, forfeiture of proceeds and equipment. The worst offenders will also be subject to prison time. We know that legitimate email marketers (such as yourself!) will likely not have to worry about the consequences mentioned above but it’s important for you to know about the seriousness of this law. This leads us into our next topic as we explain the changes being made within the iBuilder system to adapt to the Can-Spam law.

What CIBER has done to comply:

False or Misleading Headers
CIBER does not allow the manipulation of any email header information and does not use relays to deploy our email campaigns. This means that anyone reading your email (recipient, ISP, etc) will be able to clearly see that your email is being sent from CIBER’s servers.

Deceptive Subject Lines
Any subject line attached to an outgoing campaign must clearly relate to the content of the email. Deceptive or misleading subject lines are prohibited both by CIBER and also by federal law.

Opt-Out Mechanism in Every Email
CIBER automatically inserts unsubscribe details to the bottom of every email sent as part of a campaign or subscription list from our servers. Additionally, we clearly maintain an "Unsubscribe" page our our website where visitors can remove themselves from email subscription lists and add themselves to our Opt-Out List.

Valid Physical Postal Address
The CAN-SPAM law also requires that the “sender of the email” shall have a physical postal address within the content of the message. The CIBER postal address appears in the footer of every email sent as part of a campaign or subscription list from our servers.

More Information

For more information about the Can-Spam Act of 2003, visit:

http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.shtm