CASL asks for a valid mailing address in every commercial email, and it need not be where you live. A post office box or rented mailbox keeps the family's front door out of the footer.

The address in the footer

Every newsletter ends with the same small print: the business name, a link to unsubscribe and a mailing address.

For a business run from home, that address is the family's front door. The owner typed it in once, when the mailing service asked during setup, and has not looked at it since.

Since then it has gone out with every issue, to every subscriber, including people the owner has never met.

The law asks for a mailing address, not a home address, and the difference is worth an afternoon of your time.

Where the footer travels

A newsletter is not a letter to one person. The footer goes wherever the message goes.

The fourth is the one owners rarely know about. An archive page lists every past issue, footer included, and once search engines find it, those issues can turn up in search results.

What CASL asks for

Under Canada's anti-spam law, a commercial email has to say who sent it: the name the business goes by, a mailing address, and one more way to get in touch, whether by phone, email or the web.

The regulator's guidance says a mailing address can be a street address, a postal box, a rural route address or a general delivery address.

Whichever you use has to be current, and it must still reach you 60 days after each message goes out.

Nothing in that list requires the address to be where you live. It has to be an address where post for the business arrives and someone collects it.

This is general information, not legal advice.

Why the mailing service insists

The large mailing services ask for a postal address when a list is created, then print it at the foot of every campaign automatically.

Several of them are American, and American anti-spam law also asks for a physical postal address, so they apply the rule to every customer. Most will not send anything until the address is filled in.

So the question is not whether to show an address. It is which one.

The usual alternatives

Owners who work from home generally choose one of four.

A post office box is the simplest: inexpensive, rented by the year, and named in the guidance.

A mailbox rented at a private mail centre gives a street address with a box or suite number, and many centres will also sign for courier parcels.

A shared office or business centre will receive mail for a monthly fee, and some offer a room for meeting clients as well.

And a business with a workshop or studio away from the house can use that address, provided someone collects the post there.

A worked example

A gemologist appraises jewellery for insurance and estates from an office in her home, on a quiet cul-de-sac in a suburb, by appointment only.

Once a month she emails about four hundred past clients: care tips, a short piece on a gemstone, and a reminder to keep insurance appraisals current.

When she set up the mailing service, it asked for an address and she gave her own. Every issue for three years carried it, and several had been forwarded around a local estate planning group.

She noticed when a stranger rang the doorbell on a Sunday morning, holding a ring and a printed copy of the newsletter, hoping for a quick look.

The footer had told every subscriber, and everyone they passed it to, where valuable pieces are examined.

She rented a mailbox at a mail centre ten minutes away, changed the address in the list settings and in each automated email, and now gives the home address only in appointment confirmations.

Making sure the post arrives

An address only does its job if letters sent there reach you. A box nobody checks, or a mail centre account closed after a missed payment, quietly stops doing it.

Send yourself a letter at the new address before switching, and note how long it takes to arrive.

Keep the box open for at least 60 days after the last email that showed it, and put its renewal date in the calendar.

Every template, not only the newsletter

The mailing service usually holds the address in one place, but automated emails often carry footers of their own.

Check the welcome email, any reminder or anniversary sequences, the sign-up confirmation, and offers sent to groups of customers from your own email program.

Where else the address shows

The website's contact page, the Facebook page's About section and online directories often carry the same address, copied from one another.

Domain registrations can be public too. When an individual registers a .ca, the registry keeps their contact details out of public searches, and for other endings many registrars offer a privacy service.

Google My Business lets a business that visits its customers, rather than receiving them, hide its address and show a service area instead.

The counter-case

Some home addresses are meant to be public. A farm shop, a home bakery with a pickup window or a studio with a sign at the gate already shows its address everywhere, and the footer adds little.

A box costs money every year and adds a trip to collect the post, which matters to a business that receives a lot of it.

And changing the footer now does not recall issues already sent.

For most businesses run from home, though, a box address in the footer is the better default, and it is easier to set up before the list grows than after.

Before the next mail-out

  1. Read the footer of your last newsletter.
  2. List every automated email and its footer.
  3. Choose a box or mail centre near you.
  4. Send yourself a letter there first.
  5. Change the address in every template.
  6. Put the box renewal in the calendar.
  7. Check the website and listings for the same address.

Step four is the one that makes the change count. An address satisfies the rule only if post sent there reaches you, and a test letter is the only way to find out.

Consent and a working unsubscribe, the two failures behind the regulator's first penalty, are covered in the first CASL penalty and the lesson in it.

Frequently asked questions

Does CASL require my home address?

No. It requires a valid, current mailing address, and the regulator's guidance accepts a street address, a postal box, a rural route address or a general delivery address.

Why does my mailing service demand an address?

Many mailing services are American, and American anti-spam law also asks for a postal address, so they require one when a list is created and print it in every footer.

Where does the footer address end up?

In inboxes for years, in forwarded copies, on the web version behind the view-in-browser link and, with some services, in public campaign archives search engines can find.

What can I use instead of my home address?

A post office box, a mailbox rented at a private mail centre, a business centre that receives mail, or a workshop or studio address where someone collects the post.

How long must the address stay valid?

Until 60 days have passed since the last message that showed it. Keep any box open well past your final newsletter, and put its renewal date in the calendar so it never lapses.

Is a home address ever fine to show?

Yes, when customers already come to the door, as at a farm shop, a home bakery with a pickup window or a studio with a sign.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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