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Worldwide regulations on privacy and electronic communications

In the USA, there is a privacy initiative aimed at education of consumers and business 

(

www.ftc.gov/privacy

), but legislation is limited other than for email marketing. In January 

2004, a new federal law known as the  CAN-  SPAM Act (

www.ftc.gov/spam

) was intro-

duced to assist in the control of unsolicited email.  CAN-  SPAM stands for ‘Controlling the 

Assault of  Non-  Solicited Pornography and Marketing’ (an ironic juxtaposition between 

pornography and marketing). The Act requires unsolicited commercial email messages to 

be labelled (though not by a standard method) and to include  opt-  out instructions and the 

sender’s physical address. It prohibits the use of deceptive subject lines and false headers 

in such messages.

 Anti-  spam legislation in other countries can be accessed:

● 

Australia enacted a spam Act in 2003 (

www.privacy.gov.au

)

● 

Canada has a privacy Act (

www.privcom.gc.ca

)

● 

New Zealand Privacy Commissioner (

www.privacy.org.nz

)

● 

Summary of all countries (

www.privacyinternational.org

 and 

www.spamlaws.com

).