Federal CAN-SPAM Compliance

Spammers have been extremely successful at finding ways to get around security systems and deliver their junk e-mails. As a result, SPAM filters have become more sensitive. The increased sensitivity of SPAM filters is particularly important to the university because most students (and some staff) report that they forward their university e-mail to a third-party provider (Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.), all of whom work hard to minimize SPAM for their customers. Further, when an item is interpreted as "SPAM" by a SPAM filter it is often blocked (by third-party providers) and never reaches the intended audience. As a result, the number of e-newsletters reaching their intended destination substantially declined over recent years.

To ensure e-newsletters are successfully delivered to all subscribers, the university has adopted additional best practices to comply with federal CAN-SPAM regulations in an attempt to avoid triggering these more sensitive SPAM filters. Responsible news providers should be aware of the following best practices and incorporate them into their routine.

New Best Practices for News Providers

The following best practices are necessary to avoid triggering more sensitive SPAM filters:

1. Avoid the use of secure web addresses (any address that contains a link that starts with "https") in e-newsletter broadcasts. Typically, this would be a link to online forms such as applications or password-protected information.
   
   What to do instead
   Choose a link that lands the reader on the page before the secure content.
   
   
2. Reduce the length of individual news items to avoid having the final e-newsletter being interpreted as SPAM (and blocked as a result).
   
   What to do instead
   E-newsletters should be brief as lengthy content, which generates a larger broadcast file, is more likely to trigger a SPAM filter. Instead, keep your news item to 100 words or less, use links to related web pages when more detail is necessary and avoid repetition.
   
   
3. Use only black type in your message. Color text has become one of the major "red flags" for SPAM filters. Consequently, much of the old color text has been eliminated from university e-newsletters and requests to use color text for news items cannot be honored.
   
   
4. Avoid styles and language that trigger filters. Treatments that include words and sentences in all capital letters or phrases such as "click here" can be SPAM triggers and should be avoided.