Stay legally compliant

Any business is expected to send emails to new and prospective clients, as well as existing clients. While we send a large number of emails, we must also ensure that we do not violate any country laws in the process. There are numerous legal regulations that you must comply with when it comes to spam, data security, electronic advertising and marketing.

You must ensure that you have the recipient’s consent before sending them offers (only if applicable). Having a disclaimer in emails will suffice for normal communication to avoid being penalized, which can amount to millions of dollars or more.

Sigsync Email Signatures for Office 365 provides solutions to help you stay in compliance with some of these legal requirements. By using this service to add signatures and disclaimers, you can be confident that they are always added to all of your emails from all devices, saving you from compliance violations. Sigsync assists you in staying compliant with the regulations listed below.

UE

Directive 2003/58/EC

Directive 2003/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council applies to all corporate correspondence. It mandates businesses to use disclaimers that include information about their legal form, the physical address of their registered office, and any other necessary information that will allow them to be identified (i.e. the registration number and place where the register is kept). If you intend to close all of your business operations or if your company is going out of business, you can include this information at the bottom of all emails by using the Sigsync service.

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation establishes rules and principles pertaining to data security, as the name implies. Companies that use cloud services are especially concerned about adhering to all of these regulations in order to avoid being penalized with exorbitant fines. To ensure compliance with these regulations, Sigsync allows you to add disclaimers to your emails.

Furthermore, you will not have to worry about where the data will be processed when using Sigsync because you can select the Geo location when adding a tenant with Sigsync.

UK

The Companies (Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2008 and Companies Act 2006

Under both of these regulations, every company is required to disclose its registered name, address, phone number, and other information (a complete list is available here) in business letters, official publications, and other forms of business correspondence and documentation. This, of course, also applies to electronic communication and violations of these regulations result in fines. Sigsync Email Signatures for Office 365 allows you to include disclaimers and ensures that all emails are compliant.

USA

California Business and Professions Code

Section 10140.6 of this Code applies to all real estate-related advertisements in the state of California. It requires real estate companies to include specific phrases and licence numbers in their first point-of-contact materials (such as emails). Sigsync Email Signatures for Office 365 allows you to add disclaimers to every user email and manage them all in one place.

Virginia Administrative Code

Regulation 18VAC135-20-190 concerning Advertising by Licensees, requires real estate companies to disclose their licenced name as well as the city in which they are located.

California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018

Section 1798.135 of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 requires businesses to ensure that consumers have the right to opt out of the sale of their personal information. A company that is subject to this act must provide an easily accessible link on their website that allows a customer to opt out of the sale of their personal information. Although it is not explicitly stated, you can include an opt-out link in email signatures created with Sigsync Email Signatures for Office 365.

The SAFE Act (The Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008)

The SAFE Act imposes on mortgage loan originators (MLO) a duty to clearly display their unique identifiers (NMLS ID) in business communication so that potential customers (borrowers) can verify the registration and licencing of the given mortgage loan originator before making any commitments. By including your NMLS ID to email signatures, you ensure that a borrower is aware of your unique identifier right away

Additionally, under Section __.105—Use of Unique Identifier of Federal Banking Agency Requirements, an Agency-regulated institution can comply with the law by, e.g. providing a link to a website where a prospect can find a listing of registered MLOs and their unique identifiers. Sigsync Email Signatures for Office 365 supports Custom Attributes which can be used to accomplish this. You can add the NMLS number to signatures using Custom Attributes, as well as a URL to a website with information that customers may request according to the SAFE Act.

Canada

Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)

You can use Sigsync Email Signatures for Office 365 to stay in compliance with some of the CASL's provisions. For example, the legislation requires you to include information in each outgoing email that allows the recipient to easily identify you (the sender) and your company, such as your name, company name, phone number, email address, and so on. You can include this information in a disclaimer that will be added to all the emails sent by your organization. Another important requirement is that you make it simple for your recipients to unsubscribe from your mailing list. You can use Sigsync to create a disclaimer with a step-by-step guide, or simply insert a link into your disclaimer that points to your website where such instructions are available. This disclaimer will be included in all emails sent by your organization.

Australia

Spam Act 2003

The Spam Act of 2003 contains rules that mandate you to include relevant information about your company in every outgoing email, such as name, address, and other details that allow identifying your company, as well as contact information. You must also include a link to a functional unsubscribe mechanism (for example, an email address to which the recipient can send an unsubscribe message) as well as a statement defining its purpose. You can include both elements in a single disclaimer with Sigsync Email Signatures for Office 365. That way, you can comply with both provisions at the same time, and you can ensure that this disclaimer is always added to each email in the same format.

Of course, there are many other laws, while not always applicable to electronic communications, that centrally managed automatic signatures can help you abide by. With our program in place, you do not have to worry about some disclaimers not being added to your outgoing emails or being removed by third parties. Just make sure they contain all of the necessary information.

Although Sigsync Email Signatures for Office 365 can assist you in staying compliant with the aforementioned provisions, keep in mind that all of these norms and regulations may contain additional obligations that you must follow. And these obligations may differ from one country to the next. It is up to you to determine which ones directly affect you.