In 2018, a similar controversy unfolded over the use of a private email account by Ivanka Trump, the president`s daughter and one of his top advisers.2 Regardless of political affiliation or personal opinions about the equivalence of these two controversies, the message is the same, emails can be dangerous! Freshbooks` approach is a great example of how to get explicit permission to contact people via email. Sometimes emails can be sent carelessly as an attempt at humor that backfires on a massive explosion. In 1995, Chevron settled a $2.2 million sexual harassment lawsuit after an email joke was presented to the jury. The email was titled “25 Reasons Why Beer Is Better Than Women” and repeated a variation of a joke that still persists in some corners of the internet today.10 In Pondimin`s case, the “smoking gun” was an email sent by a Wyeth manager in 1996 that said, “Am I safe or can I look forward to my final years, in which I sign checks for fat people who are a little afraid of a stupid lung. Problem? Imagine how you would feel if you were a member of the jury, and (ahem) a little overweight. These laws are primarily aimed at spammers and are designed to prevent them from acquiring people`s email addresses without their permission and spamming them with unsolicited emails. To send a marketing email, you must first collect information from your customers. Whether online, in-store or otherwise, you must comply with data protection laws when collecting this information. To comply with the above laws, you must create a privacy policy. It is a legal document that describes how customer data is collected, used, managed and disclosed. Your privacy policy also sets out how customers` privacy and personal information are protected.

If your email can`t be searched for words or phrases, create folders where you can separate your emails based on their content. Keep them very well organized so you can quickly find any document you are looking for. This way, when you`re preloaded to view specific emails or information in your email, you can find them and deliver them on time. Also consider how an unreasonable person might react to an email. Sometimes no matter what you type, the person will find something offensive and the communication will add fuel to the fire or be misused as evidence against you. A very short email response or the use of another method of communication can be helpful. If you`re working from home from a company, it`s very important to understand email retention policies and email monitoring policies. Most companies require you to use your work emails only for business purposes and in a business mansion, and many companies take a proactive approach to avoiding litigation by hiring people to scan emails sent to and from employees to ensure email policies are followed. Electronic communication is a mixed blessing. Business is more efficient and new ways of negotiating continue to open up.

However, the ubiquitous electronic communication has undermined our personal time and depicted almost addictive distractions. From a legal point of view, electronic communications, and emails in particular, not only create harmful evidence, but can even contribute to legal action. The anti-spam law in the UK is called the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. This requires that your email marketing messages (also known as direct marketing) provide accurate descriptions of the product or service, legal, honest, truthful, and socially responsible (they must not encourage illegal, dangerous, or antisocial behavior). There are a number of different laws that govern the use of email marketing for commercial purposes. These are the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States, the LAWS of CASL in Canada and the United Kingdom, a set of laws known as the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations of 2003. The Opioid Epidemic In a more recent and ongoing case, it was reported on March 26, 2019, that Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, settled a $270 million lawsuit with the State of Oklahoma.8 Part of the reason for the settlement was overwhelming evidence from emails that members of the Sackler family, Purdue Pharma owner, have made an effort to: mislead the public about the dangers or addiction to opioids.9 Many of the anti-spam laws around the world are designed to control the sending of commercial email marketing messages, and they apply to any type of newsletters, marketing ads, or advertising campaigns that your company may send. Learn why permission-based marketing is an important part of email marketing. If you keep your emails professional and in memo form, you shouldn`t have any legal problems because of their content. Be very careful in what you write; It may come back to haunt you. In practice, a detailed, comprehensive and clear email policy is the best way for an employer to limit potential legal liability while protecting legitimate business interests in email monitoring. An appropriate email usage policy should inform employees that all emails are being monitored.

The policy must be written and explained in detail to all employees. Employees must sign these policies and indicate that they understand and agree to all written actions. The policy should also make it clear that the company`s messaging system is owned by the company and is intended for commercial purposes. It should be noted that the Company reserves the right to monitor the use of emails at its sole discretion to protect against abuse. Finally, the policy should clarify that employees have no expectation of privacy in a matter contained in an email sent or received through the employer`s system, even if it is deleted. It is good practice for an organization to have a sexual harassment policy (often as part of the employee handbook) that explicitly prohibits sexual harassment in any form, including by email. When people visit their blog, Freshbooks presents them with a pop-up window that encourages them to subscribe to their email list to get instant access to an eBook about growing the business. Emails are often a rich source of evidence for labour law cases. Email is a direct form of communication that can show that an employee has been treated unfairly or has been the victim of harassing behavior. If an employee is unfairly fired, emails can also provide evidence that they have already received positive feedback from supervisors, co-workers or employers. However, one area that is largely exempt from these laws is that of transactional emails.

So when you send order confirmations, shipping confirmations, password reset emails, etc. (which is meant to provide information about an existing purchase or membership), then those specific emails are exempt from the above anti-spam rules. By entering their email address in the field, people give Freshbooks explicit permission to send them an email, and Freshbooks is able to create a large mailing list that complies with global anti-spam laws.