A recently published study from the European Commission on
‘Unsolicited Commercial Communications and Data Protection’ states
that unsolicited commercial e-mail, commonly referred to as ‘spam’,
costs internet users worldwide approximately £6 billion (€10
billion) per year.
The Commission has proposed that existing data protection
legislation in the European Union, relating to the
telecommunications sector, be modified to include an ‘opt-in’
clause. Currently most suppliers in the EC use an ‘opt-out’ clause
where a box is ticked if the user does not want to receive spam,
this means that the default setting is that the user wants to
receive spam. Under an ‘opt-in’ provision the default setting is
that the user does not want to receive spam, it is only if the user
selects the ‘opt-in’ box that he/she will receive spam.
A statement issued by the Commission stated, ‘This [opt-in] is
supported by the study, which found that, from the point of view of
the industry, permission-based marketing is proving a more
effective and viable method of data collection. The study also
found that the opt-in approach would serve to bolster consumer
confidence in the EU.’
At the moment, ‘opt-in’ systems are only in place in Austria,
Denmark, Finland, Italy and Germany.
The chief executive officer of spam filtering firm Brightmail
commented, ‘Not only do these attacks result in an estimated 15 to
20 percent decrease in employee productivity, they also create huge
downtime problems for ISP’s, resulting in ‘denial of service’ for
subscribers.’
It has been suggested that if these Commission proposals are
implemented, the problem of spam may be irradicated by the end of
2002. However, critics have pointed out that most current spammers
are less-than-reputable businesses who will take little notice of
anti-spam laws.
