APIs & Integrations

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Is HubSpot violating Canada's anti-spam law?

We have been trying to get this question answered for exactly 2 years now to no avail. Hoping one of you can shed light on this issue. Here goes it…

HubSpot automaticlly subscribes new contacts to every active email type that exists in your portal. This has been a sticking point for us in completely moving forward with HubSpot. We currently use MailChimp for our email campaigns.

So if you have multiple active email types, let’s say A, B, C, D, and E. A new visitor fills out a form to subscribe to B, they are now a contact who is subscribed to not only B, but all others as well. Essentially they’ve just been subscribed to four additional email types without knowing they did so.

The following two articles highlight this issue.


Excerpt from A Guide to the New Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)

It’s important to note that the recipient has to manually “opt in,” so pre-checked checkboxes are not okay for getting consent. One that the users check themselves is okay, as is a box that the users type their email addresses into with a submission button next to it that users hit, but those must also be accompanied with something explaining why you want their consent (the purpose), who you are (information), and that they can un-consent. Additionally, you can’t just put “… and I consent to receive emails” into your website’s legal copy.

Please have a look at our email preferences page to see how a new contact has to manually opt out of each type.

Excerpt from CASL and Marketing Automation

The opposing view here is that the Canadian who converted on the form was only converting for the purpose of receiving the initial content/offer and that they must opt-in to any subsequent electronic communication.


The most common advice we hear is to make sure you include a clear call-to-action in the welcome email that directs the new contact to their preference page so they can then uncheck all email types they don’t want. Not only is this bad User Experience, it seems to blantely go against Canada’s anti spam law.

Have a look at our HubSpot email preferences page to see what I am talking about.

Have any of you successfully dealt with this issue? If so, we would love to hear how you did so.

Thanks so much for the help!

26件の返信
peteratkinson
メンバー

Is HubSpot violating Canada's anti-spam law?

Thank you for the clearest explanation of this so far! I've been reading up on this for hours and HubSpot seems to have done an abysmal job of explaining this!

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適用対象外

Is HubSpot violating Canada's anti-spam law?

I should add, if the answer is to provide them with an opt-out link so they can manage their preferences I have two concerns with that route.

  1. What happens if the contact does not see/receive that email or link for whatever reason? They are now going to get blasted with four unwanted emails.

  2. Isn’t requiring them to de-select all other email types bad UX? That is akin to ordering a cheese pizza and the waiter brings you a supreme and then tells you to just pick all the unwanted toppings off.

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Mirzet_Kadric
メンバー

Is HubSpot violating Canada's anti-spam law?

Hello Lee,

We have a few HubSpot clients (since we are from Québec) and we have to answer to this law. HubSpot does not automatically subscribe new contacts to lists. You have to create list yourself using smart lists. For every forms, we add an option where the vistor has to choose to subscribe to the newsletter.

Every time you send an email, you have to choose one list. HubSpot is a great tool, but you need an awesome strategy to make sure you achieve your goals.

Let’s hope you find the right fit,

Mirzet
A proud HubSpot partner since 2014

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Is HubSpot violating Canada's anti-spam law?

Hi Mirzet,

Thanks for responding. I’m not quite sure I follow you. I’ve found that regardless of how I manage lists, workflows, or whatever else, anytime a new contact is added to any list whether it be smart or static, that contact is automatically subscribed to all active email types.

I’ve made a landing page you can test for yourself. Here’s how it works.

  1. Arrive on landing page to sign up for Email Type A.

  2. On form submission you are added to a list for Email Type A subscribers only.

  3. You’ll receive your first Email Type A immediately.

  4. Check your email preferences page to see if you’ve been added to anything else.

I’m not seeing anything in the list of available workflow actions to suppress a new contact from being subscribed to other active email types.

Being placed on a particular smart list or static list does not prevent a new contacts email preferences page to look like this.

Am I just not seeing something blatantly obvious?

Cheers,
Lee

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Dadams
HubSpot Employee
HubSpot Employee

Is HubSpot violating Canada's anti-spam law?

Hi @Lee

HubSpot’s email tools can be set up to run a CASL-compliant email marketing program, but you’ll need to consult your own legal counsel to make sure that you’re in compliance.

There are some details about this here:

What is CASL (Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation)?

Quick answer to a frequently asked HubSpot question.

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適用対象外

Is HubSpot violating Canada's anti-spam law?

Hi David,

Thanks for shairing that article. If I’m reading it correctly, especially this part:

CASL requires organizations to obtain permission before sending any communication. CASL also requires senders maintain proof of opt-in, including the source and time.

I’m still not seeing a solution as to how my example can comply with CASL. If that visitor subscribes to email type A on Monday, HubSpot has automatically subscribed them to all the others without their permission.

Now let’s say for some reason email types B, C, D, and E are scheduled to send Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Friday respectively, this new contact may be suprised as to why they’re receiving so many other emails when they only signed up for one. Does that make sense?

So when you say “HubSpot’s email tools can be set up to run a CASL-compliant email marketing program” is there a support article you can point me to in order to accomplish this in regard to the situation I’m describing?

I appreciate your help,
Lee

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