Microsoft has announced it is going to suspend its 12 year-old email notification service, possibly because of tougher Canadian anti-spam laws.
The software giant has already begun sending out service suspension notice to IT professionals and as well as other users who have signed up to receive the security updates. Microsoft has instead recommended them to subscribe to the company’s RSS feeds to receive new security alerts and updates.
Redmond, in the notice, said it will suspend the use of email notifications that announce security bulletin advance notifications, security bulletin summaries, new security advisories and bulletins and major and minor revisions to security advisories and bulletins with effect from July 1, 2014.
The suspension is due to government’s changing policies regarding issuance of automated electronic messaging, the notice said.
The mailing list service was introduced way back in 2002 to send out Patch Tuesday security updates and to keep IT professionals informed of security-related alerts, vulnerability details and advisory revisions.
The sudden service suspension decision connects to a newly introduced anti-spam Canadian law which will come into effect the same day i.e. July 1.
As per the new anti-spam law, organisations will be required to procure consent for sending bulk email notifications, requiring subscribers or prospective customers to go through an opt-in process, in case of any violation, the company would otherwise will be penalised with a fine of $10M for sending out mass notifications.
Interesting thing to be noted is that Microsoft has called out for a mere ‘suspension’ of the service which means there are chances that the software giant might re-introduce the same in future.
