Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation targets unwanted emails

Canada's anti-spam law took effect yesterday.

Now, businesses and organizations can'tsendcommercial electronic messages without the recipient'sapproval underCanada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). This includes texts, emails and social media messages.

Companies canbe fined up $10million for sending unsolicited emails.

The U.S., Australia and the UK have had anti-spam laws for years.Some analysts say the law will do little to reduce spam from overseas where spammers can easily escape the Canadian law.

Saskatoon's Marek Majewski saidhe's happy to have more control over the emails he receives.

"In fact, I've already gotten a number of emails asking me to agree to promotional materials ... some of them I agree ... some I ignored."

Saskatoon resident Jennifer Coxworthis worried about how the lawwill impact small businesses.

"For example, my yoga class, the teacher had to send something out, you know, he had to remind everybody in the class over and over, make sure you say yes so that we can send you the schedule and cancellations and stuff," she said. "So for people like that, I think it can be perhaps difficult."

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