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"STEPS"
to tackle unsolicited electronic messages
After
drawing the public views expressed to the earlier consultation
exercise conducted in mid 2004, the government plans to launch
a "STEPS" campaign, which stands for strengthening existing
regulatory measures, technical solutions, education, partnerships,
and statutory measures, to fight against spam.
Through
out the campaign, a series of measures will be taken:
- penalizing
advertisers who continue to spam recipients on the "not-to-call"
list by reducing the timeframe required to cut off their
access to telecommunications services;
- extending
the existing code of practice for mobile network operators
to cover all SMS and MMS unsolicited promotional messages;
- collaborating
with the industry to raise the public awareness on spamming
, and to promote the latest anti-spam technical solutions
to all users;
- developing
a common blacklist to filter spam at the local Internet
service provider level; and
- regulating
spamming through legislation.
I support
the government's plan - a right move to address spamming,
which constitutes tremendous damages, both monetary and non-monetary,
to the IT sector and general users. I think the plan responded
to our call for anti-spam legislation, which we voiced out
at an industry fourm jointly hosted by my office, HKISPA and
Anti-spam Coalition in Jan 2004.
I understand
that members of the public may concern that an anti-spam law
may impair freedom of speech and free flow of information.
In order to strike a right balance among fighting off spam,
protecting our civil liberties, as well as ensureing not to
place unnecessary operational burden to legitimate e-marketers,
I will carefully scrutinize the bill, once the government
introduced the full draft legislation into the Legislative
Council some time next year. If you have any comments or ideas
on anti-spam legislation, please drop me some words (cksin@sinchungkai.org.hk).
CK
Sin
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