US CAN-SPAM
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 addresses email marketing more directly that CalOPPA. Passed in the same year as the California law, CAN-SPAM represents the first national standard for commercial emails. The law is act of Congress that gives the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the rights to enforce it.
CAN-SPAM includes seven primary requirements that marketers must follow to prevent American consumers from dreaded unsolicited emails:
- Be honest in your header (including from, to, and routing information)
- Skip deceptive subjects
- Disclose the email as an advertisement
- Share your physical postal address in the body
- Provide instructions for opting out
- Honor opt-out requests within 10 business days
- Make sure third parties or processors comply with CAN-SPAM
The following industries/verticals are explicitly banned from being sent:
- Pornographic or adult content
- Adult novelty items
- Online trading, forex trading, or stock market related content
- Multi-level marketing
- Pharmaceutical products
- Keylogging
- Get-rich-quick, work-at-home schemes or paid surveys
- Gambling services, products or gambling education
- Online sweepstakes
- Streaming TV services
- Dating-related services (unless you receive written approval)
- Herbal highs or herbal incense
- List brokers or list rental services
- Essay writing services
- Bulk RFQ (request for quote) emails
- Designer goods (without prior approval)
- Fake phishing emails for a ‘training exercise’ or penetration testing
- Unsolicited marketing email (i.e. without proper permission from recipients)