The good, the bad and the spam

The room was filled with some 50 worried people - small business operators, marketing and communications professionals of large companies, PR practitioners, web consultants, managers of charities and IT managers, all attending a seminar on the new anti-spam Act. It was a diverse group with one common need - they all wanted to know more. Life will not be the same for New Zealand businesses - come September 5, when New Zealand's first anti-Spam legislation will be unleashed.

It will affect almost every business in New Zealand - small or big, commercial or charity, goods-driven or services provider, with very few exceptions like government bodies defined by the Ombudsmen Act 1975or the Crown Entities Act 2004.

And business owners and managers have reason to be anxious, as the Act prescribes a penalty of up to $500,000 for non-compliance. The Unsolicited Electronic Communication Bill, which is aimed at bad guys, is making good guys nervous. They have a legitimate business to conduct, and an authentic need to communicate with their audience; but they are not certain whether their electronic communication is legitimate any more.

The major implication of the Act is that businesses are now gearing up to send one mass email to their database, seeking permission from people to receive promotional emails. Unlike the popular opt-out practice (you have to reply to be able to unsubscribe to a mailing list), businesses are being recommended to use opt-in request to secure consent (reply to stay subscribed).

Some marketing professionals even see this resulting in a major wipe-out of a very sustainable way to communicate. Marketing managers are worried that they may lose most prospects on their database that like to receive email updates, but would not take the trouble of replying to subscribe request, to stay on the list. No wonder, some businesses have to go an extra mile and show a carrot, as the country's flagship carrier is doing, offering hundreds of dollars of airfare in a lucky draw, to encourage Kiwis to confirm their email subscription.

The bill, which was written by the Ministry of Economic Development after a long period of deliberation, seeks to address the universal issue of Spam. Any unsolicited commercial message (email or text) is Spam, according to the new Act. If email contains message that offers goods or services, it is commercial. If an email is sent without recipient's permission, it is unsolicited. It's as simple as that!

However, communications professionals are advising their managers and clients about three important criteria that their communication needs to meet: obtain recipients' permission, identify the sender and their contact details, and provide a 'unsubscribe' facility. They are also required to maintain a record of permissions at all times. And last, businesses cannot use harvested lists.

What's more, even the legitimate channels of marketing like 'tell a friend' links on news websites, and 'get a friend to sign up' marketing promotions may attract the wrath of the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), which is responsible for the implementation of the new Act.

Unlike Australian legislation which is more specific, the New Zealand Act provides for very few exemptions, and therefore has more wide-reaching implications for our businesses.

For New Zealand's small businesses which are already on thin profit margins in this gloomy economic environment, this legislation brings additional compliance and administrative costs.

ISP providers can expect sleepless nights too! Hundreds of businesses will try to obtain permission from non-consented email addresses before 5 September, and as millions of hurried emails are expected to be transmitted by the last-minute managers, ISPs' bandwidth will be put to test on 4 September.

However, some managers see this as an opportunity to clean up their databases of 'sleeping' subscribers, or those who prefer the 'delete' button over the 'reply to subscribe' button. Then there are other Kiwis who are too polite to unsubscribe. The new Act has provided a legitimate (!) reason to everyone to tell the truth.

And the new Act is creating more business for many. Lawyers, web consultants and PR practitioners are smiling their way to bank. Internet solutions providers have seen this as a huge opportunity to grow their business by helping worried managers comply with the legislation. The additional administrative work generated by compliance activities will see sizeable temporary work opportunities for people.

Of course, even the DIA has an upheaval task on hand. All complaints to the DIA will be accompanied by samples of all sorts of Spam - Viagra offers, Nigerian scams and viruses that wipe out hard-drives.

Since the Act is less prescriptive and allows the DIA the discretion to use the test of reasonableness, the DIA will have to exercise high degree of prudence and judgement in dealing with complaints.

And behold, apparently the bad guys are directing their Spam guns at DIA. Look after your servers, Wellington!

(Sangeeta Anand is the editorial director and publisher of a large Auckland-based email magazine called The Global Indian (www.theglobalindian.co.nz). She can be contacted at sanand@theglobalindian.co.nz)

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