CCPA New Rules May Mean No More Unsubscribe Trickery October 23, 2020, | Posted by Guest

California’s new privacy law, which went into effect this January, has already brought about a lot of concerns and outright naysaying from businesses that either operate inside the state or which have large customer pools in the state, and the latest development is likely to bring even more upset from email marketing professionals and brands alike. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra proposed new privacy regulations under the CCPA umbrella last week, which are likely to result in the need for marketers to be much more transparent when it comes to unsubscribe capabilities. Site Impact has always championed the best practices in email, especially when it comes to consent--but this new regulation may cause more work for those email marketers who have relied on a few types of trickery to limit list losses.

New regulation clarifies what is and isn’t allowed

Ultimately, the new regulation does something very important: it clarifies a point in the existing law that could be considered somewhat vague, by providing examples of what is no longer allowed. The proposed rule states, “A business shall not use a method that is designed with the purpose or has the substantial effect of subverting or impairing a consumer’s choice to opt-out.” From there, it goes on to give specific tricks that are invalid and that run afoul of the regulation. As an example, businesses are no longer allowed to use “confusing” language--for example, “Don’t not sell my personal information,” or prompts that make it unclear whether the user is opting out or opting back in. Other verboten tricks include burying the unsubscribe link at the very bottom of the email, or any other method for hiding it; specifically, it’s forbidden to force people to “search or scroll through the text of a privacy policy or similar document or webpage to locate the mechanism.”

More work for some, but best practices reign

The bright side of the new proposed regulation is that businesses that are already using the best practices in the email marketing industry are unlikely to notice much of a difference or be in a position to have to do a bunch of additional work. Those businesses that adhere to the best practices already make it easy for subscribers to back out for a few key reasons, not the least of which is that it makes it much easier to keep bounce rates and spam reports low. By making it easy for subscribers to cancel, email lists stay much cleaner and audiences remain much more engaged--and people who don’t want your emails aren’t who you want to be marketing to, anyway. 

There have been plenty of complaints about CCPA, the new privacy and consumer data protection law out of California. While there have been a lot of hurdles that might not have existed otherwise, it’s also important to acknowledge that the regulations being proposed in this instance are little more than the existing best practices for the email marketing industry. The best bet that businesses of all sizes have is to partner with providers that are already ahead of the game, to avoid having to do extra work. Contact Site Impact to hear how we’re always on top of even the most recent regulations and laws regarding the industry.