The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) upholds the
Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), which
control the sending of unsolicited marketing messages. That
prohibition will now not extend to Bluetooth technology, the ICO
has said in correspondence with someone who enquired about the
regulations.
The ICO had not commented officially at time of publication. It
is expected to update its guidance this week on the matter.
"A public electronic communications network means an electronic
communications network provided wholly or mainly for the purpose of
making electronic communications services available to members of
the public," said the correspondence.
"Regulation 22 therefore applies to the sending of text messages
or emails (which are both sent over a public electronic
communications network) however following consultation and
consideration, we do not believe that this definition covers
Bluetooth technology."
"Our guidance will therefore be updated to reflect the fact that
we do not consider Bluetooth marketing falls under the provisions
of Regulation 22 (and therefore does not fall under the Privacy and
Electronic Communications Regulations)," said the
correspondence.
"It is going to be a complete free for all," said Troy Norcross,
a mobile marketing consultant with New Media Edge. "I call it blue
spam for a reason."
The ICO guidelines have until now insisted that users opt in to
receive Bluetooth marketing in the same way that they have to with
other forms of communication. That now will change.
"Until now most businesses have opted for a soft opt in, so a
cinema says that by being in our building you are seeking to do
business with us, so we can send you material relating to films,"
said Norcross. "But if they started sending you material about
insurance or lawnmowers that would no longer count. It has to be
related to their business."
Norcross said that there were examples of uses of Bluetooth
which went against the guidance already, but that they have gone
largely un-noticed. "The people doing this around town or in bus
shelters are doing it ostensibly against the rules, but not in
enough numbers to get people really up in arms," he said.
This, he said, was likely to change. "I think now we are going
to find Bluetooth marketing suppliers grabbing on to this and going
out and trying to get more people to try bluetooth marketing."
Bluetooth is a close-range wireless communications technology
present in many mobile phones. Users can avoid receiving marketing
messages by switching their Bluetooth off or by setting their
phones to refuse connections from strangers, but this would affect
the way they can use the technology.
