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Making a new or stronger connection with customers is what business is all about. As discussed on In Partnership With, there are certain approaches, mindsets and nuances required to be effective. Approaching relationships with these insights in mind are often the first step but there’s more to the story. Effective marketing means not just building relationships with communications but doing so in a legitimate and legal manner. Nowhere has this been more contentious (and perhaps confusing) over the last few years in Canada than with digital marketing.
Dissecting the regulations and various oversight and regulatory bodies often requires a keen attention to detail. In practice, it means going over the legislation with a fine-toothed comb and being able to explain it in plain language. In this article, In Partnership With discusses the digital marketing and privacy landscape in Canada with Derek Lackey. Derek is a trusted advisor with over 40 years experience and is the Managing Director of Newport Thomson. In addition, he is the Chairman of the Response Marketing Association. Let’s see if we can make more sense of the various changes over time and what their impact is for both businesses and consumers.
BUILDING A CASL IN THE SKY
Derek’s primary focus is keeping up with the new data protection and privacy regulations for today’s business executives. These include support and consulting services for the main areas of focus, including CASL, CCPA, PIPEDA, CAN-SPAM and GDPR. They’re often inter-related and overlapping for both the intent and the spirit of the legislation. Let’s start with email marketing since it has often been the more complex (or at least visible) aspect of digital privacy protection.
First, Derek argues, it’s helpful to start with the premise:
With CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation), the goal is to protect consumers and businesses from the misuse of digital technology, including spam and other electronic threats.
This is a worthwhile and important project, argues Derek. CASL came into force in 2014 during a consumer activism-focused stint from federal government. Embedded in the legislation was a private right of action that was scheduled to come into force in 2017. Derek reminds us that the private right of action provision allows anyone to sue individuals and organizations that violate CASL by either their action or omission. Many organizations were upset over this inclusion and the federal government indefinitely postponed this primary enforcement tool.
Many organizations are not in full compliance with CASL but Derek believes there is limited interest in pursuing offenders. He reports that the CRTC has issued only three fines / undertakings since 2017.
Prior to 2017, organizations were scrambling for compliance. But not many marketers are giving the matter much thought today beyond their basic compliance measures set up in 2014. Derek argues that’s potentially an ethical problem and it’s fairly unique to Canada.
GDPR HAS FOCUS AND TEETH
Facing many of the same issues that Canada experienced, European parliamentarians decided to go a different route in 2016. What’s different there is that the problem of junk email and other privacy issues online were approached with a unique lens. Their answer was the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In creating this legislation, Derek suggests that clarity and purpose was primary for both businesses and consumers.
When you look at how GDPR was written, implemented and enforced, it is 100% to provide data protection for its citizens. In Canada, we have that goal, but we also don’t want to make it inconvenient for business. So it’s serving two masters.
GDPR has…
