Richard Czeiger wrote:
I agree - I think the areas of "Web Standards" and "Best Practices"
should go side by side.
If one country has decided to actually legislate on something then it's
at least worth discussing.
I fail to see how the UK's "anti-spam law" is relevant to web
standards...but nonetheless: IANAL, but the reference I can find is The
Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications (2002/58/EC)
<http://www.dti.gov.uk/industries/ecommunications/directive_on_privacy_electronic_communications_200258ec.html>
"extends controls on unsolicited direct marketing to all forms of
electronic communications including unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE
or Spam) and SMS to mobile telephones; UCE and SMS will be subject to a
prior consent requirement [ed. an opt-in], so the receiver is required
to agree to it in advance, except in the context of an existing customer
relationship, where companies may continue to email or SMS to market
their own similar products on an 'opt-out' basis;"
This is in line, as Philippe mentioned, with the European directive
<http://europa.eu.int/information_society/policy/ecomm/todays_framework/privacy_protection/spam/index_en.htm>
"Article 13(1) of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive
requires Member States to prohibit the sending of unsolicited commercial
communications by fax or e-mail or other electronic messaging systems
such as SMS and MMS unless the prior consent of the addressee has been
obtained (opt-in system).
The only exception to this rule is in cases where contact details for
sending e-mail or SMS messages (but not faxes) have been obtained in the
context of a sale. Within such an existing customer relationship the
company who obtained the data may use them for the marketing of similar
products or services as those it has already sold to the customer.
Nevertheless, even then the company has to make clear from the first
time of collecting the data, that they may be used for direct marketing
and should offer the right to object. Moreover, each subsequent
marketing message should include an easy way for the customer to stop
further messages (opt-out).
The opt-in system is mandatory for any e-mail, SMS or fax addressed to
natural persons for direct marketing. It is optional with regard to
legal persons. For the latter category Member States may choose between
an opt-in or an opt-out system."
Now, I can't find a definitive piece of legislation or code of practice
that clearly says "an opt-in needs to be an unticked checkbox that the
user needs to actively check, and an opt-out needs to be a ticked
checkbox that the user needs to actively uncheck", but I strongly
suspect that there is case law relating to this, and any
double-triple-negative obfuscation a la "don't check this checkbox if
you don't want to receive no spam" would not hold in a court of law and
make a contract thus entered null and void.
Again, IANAL, but speaking purely from a common-sense point of view.
P
--
Patrick H. Lauke
__________________________________________________________
re·dux (adj.): brought back; returned. used postpositively
[latin : re-, re- + dux, leader; see duke.]
www.splintered.co.uk | www.photographia.co.uk
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http://webstandards.org/
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