Anyone know anything about CAN-SPAM laws?

[wraith808]

I was trying to set up a mailing list for betas that I run of my writing- just to send notifications and have an easy way to subscribe to it in a RESTful manner from a form, rather than using mailman.  Mailchimp and Tinyletter both require your address to put in the footer of your e-mail- said it's because of CAN-SPAM laws.  But e-mail lists I get from companies and such don't have their physical address on every newsletter they send out, and I was definitely not going to have my personal physical address on them.

Anyone know if that is truly a requirement, and how other companies get away with it?

[Stoic Joker]

Found this on a quick search: Email Privacy and CAN SPAM Laws to Be Aware Of

Short answer seems to be yes if the site referenced makes any money, but you can use a PO box in lieu of a physical address.

[40hz]

+1 w/Stoic on a PO box. If you're doing anything even remotely resembling "business" and you're communicating with people you don't know personally, you definitely want a PO box these days. (Especially if you ever decide to start accepting written orders or paper checks.)

[wraith808]

I found an interesting service...

https://www.privatebox.co.nz/

Has anyone used something like that?

[TaoPhoenix]

I think certain companies have found "obscure provisions" (not necessarily loopholes) that allow them to not put "this is not spam" in the footer, and probably something like having kept documentation of every address being stored with the original reference request.

Though I'm too lazy to look on my other account, I think Radio Shack comes to mind.

What makes it worse is many sleazy companies put the "Footer" there but bogus, because when you click it to opt out, they go "Yay! Someone read this! Sell this number to our "partner" ! Then they can get four more spam!"