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(iv) Public
Education Efforts by CASE and SBF
CASE and SBF will also lend their support to the anti-spam
initiative by educating the public and businesses on the proposed
legal framework and anti-spam measures via its website, workshops
and electronic newsletters.
(B) Industry
Self-Regulation
(i) Efforts by ISPs
The three major Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Pacific
Internet (PacNet), SingNet and StarHub, under the facilitation of
IDA, have come together to set up anti-spam guidelines. These
guidelines serve as guiding principles to be adopted jointly by
the three ISPs to help reduce e-mail spam for their subscribers.
(ii) Efforts by
DMAS
The DMAS has today launched an E-mail Marketing Code of Practice
for its members. It will also be setting up a Consumer
Communications Preference Programme to be launched before the end
of this year that will allow e-mail users to register their
preference not to receive unsolicited commercial e-mail.
(C) Legislative
Framework
IDA and the Attorney-General's Chambers of Singapore (AGC) are
issuing a joint consultation paper which proposes a legislative
framework to control e-mail spam in Singapore. The proposed
legislative framework seeks to balance the legitimate interests
and concerns of different groups such as e-mail users and ISPs on
the one hand, and marketers on the other. Many jurisdictions such
as Australia, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United
States, Japan and South Korea have enacted legislation for the
control of e-mail spam.
The consultation paper
proposes an opt-out regime3 as part of the legislative
framework. It proposes to give ISPs which have suffered loss or
damage as a result of spam, a statutory right to commence civil
proceedings against the spammer.
IDA and AGC invite
comments from the public on the proposals made in the consultation
paper. The consultation paper can be downloaded from the
"Policy & Regulation" section, under
"Consultation Papers" of the IDA web site at www.ida.gov.sg.
All comments should be submitted to IDA by 26 July 2004, 12:00
noon. IDA and AGC will assess and consider all comments received
before finalising the proposals and commencing the legislative
process.
(D) International
Cooperation
Spam is a global issue and Singapore cannot fight this battle
alone. To extend Singapore's anti-spam efforts to international
shores, IDA participated in the US Federal Trade Commission's
"Operation Secure Your Server" campaign4, to
encourage organisations worldwide to close open relays and proxies
in January this year. IDA is also committed to partake in
international initiatives, including participation in global and
regional fora such APEC, ITU, OECD and ASEAN.
Commenting on IDA's
efforts to curb e-mail spam in Singapore, Mr Leong Keng Thai, Deputy
Chief Executive and Director-General (Telecoms) of the IDA said,
"he multi-pronged approach developed with support from the
private and public sectors sends a strong signal that e-mail spam is
an issue that requires a concerted effort by the government,
industry, public and the Internet community. IDA understands that
spam will continue to be a global issue and there is no immediate
panacea to resolve this problem completely. However, this
multi-pronged approach, together with legislation, is a step forward
to curb e-mail spam. It seeks to balance the interests of legitimate
businesses advertising via e-mails and interests of users who have
the right to opt out of unsolicited e-mails. With a multi-pronged
policy developed, IDA hopes to address the concerns of e-mail users
and reduce e-mail spam in the Internet space."
Please refer to annex
for quotes from key partners to this multi-pronged approach and fact
sheets on the respective industry and consumer associations' efforts
to curb e-mail spam.
JOINTLY ISSUED BY
INFOCOMM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE,
PACIFIC INTERNET, SINGNET, STARHUB, CONSUMER ASSOCIATION OF
SINGAPORE,
DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION OF SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE BUSINESS
FEDERATION AND
SINGAPORE INFOCOMM TECHNOLOGY FEDERATION.
Notes:
1E-mail
spam is defined as unsolicited commercial e-mail messages. This
excludes communications such as those between private individuals,
Government to citizen communications, appeals for donations by
charities and religious organisations, and messages which are of a
purely factual nature.
2This
survey is conducted to understand the nature and extent of e-mail
spam in Singapore. More information can be found on the IDA website
at www.ida.gov.sg under
"Facts and Figures" / "Surveys".
3
Opt-out regime is defined as the distribution model of sending
unsolicited e-mail and allowing the recipient to request removal. An
Opt-in regime on the other hand is characterised by recipients
having signed up at websites, special advertisement banners or other
marketing channels for promotional information about one or more
categories of products or services. Those who signed up have thus
"opted in". Any e-mails sent as a result would not be
considered unsolicited
4 The
campaign is supported by 36 other agencies from 26 countries.
Through this campaign, the US FTC sent business advisories to
organisations worldwide with unsecured servers, explained the
problems associated and provided instructions on how to protect
computer systems from misuse. Open relays and proxies are servers
that allow any computer in the world to route email through servers
of other organisations, thereby disguising the real origin of the
e-mail. For more information, visit ftc.gov/secureyoursever.
Source: Infocomm
Development Authority Press Release 25 May 2004
------------------------------------------
Fact
sheet A: Internet
Service Providers’ Efforts to Curb E-mail Spam in Singapore
ISPs’ Joint Statement
on Spam E-mail
1.
This Joint Statement is issued by the undersigned ISPs in
response to the growing problem of spam in Singapore and to outline
the anti-spam measures we propose to take.
2.
The use of the Internet to send large volumes of unsolicited[1]
e-mail to promote products and services has annoyed many Internet
users as well as strained the facilities of Internet Service
Providers (ISPs) and businesses. Such e-mail, sent without the
recipients’ prior request or consent, is popularly known as ‘spam’.
3.
Spam e-mail on the Internet is a serious and growing
worldwide problem, which accounts for a large percentage[2]
of e-mail traffic on the Internet. It affects end-users’ Internet
experience and their productivity as they have to spend more time
accessing, downloading, reviewing and discarding unwanted e-mail. It
also wastes the time and resources of businesses and ISPs, and
imposes substantial operational costs needed to tackle this problem,
such as hardware and manpower requirements.
The spammer, on the other hand, bears virtually no cost.
4.
In these economically challenging times, marketing via email
is potentially a cost-effective tool for businesses in Singapore
looking to broaden their customer base and to lower their marketing
costs. With this in mind, we see the need to prevent the devaluation
of e-mail by anonymous businesses with no pre-existing relationship
to, or with no permission from, the recipient of such unsolicited
e-mails.
5.
As providers of Internet access services, ISPs have no
control over the types of content being carried in e-mail.
Our experience shows that the vast majority of spam e-mail
originates from overseas. We
acknowledge this problem and wish to provide assistance to our
customers to manage the spam problem.
Definition
of spam e-mail
6.
Spam e-mail is, by nature, subjective and it is difficult to
find a precise definition agreeable to everyone. Nevertheless, a working definition of spam e-mail is necessary for us to co-operate
and move towards implementing effective anti-spam measures.
7.
We acknowledge that our definition is not comprehensive at
this stage and does not cover many other forms of unsolicited e-mail
that users may also consider as spam e-mail (i.e. what is spam to
user A may not be spam to user B.) However, we have identified the
two most serious forms of spam to focus our efforts on, namely:
a)
Unsolicited bulk e-mail sent to e-mail servers (of ISPs and
corporations) by guessing the e-mail addresses of recipients,
resulting in substantially increased server-loads and handling of
error messages. This is often referred to as “dictionary-attack”
spam.
b)
Unsolicited commercial e-mail with
(i)
fake or invalid sender e-mail address;
(ii)
deceptive subject label (or heading) that does not match the
content of the e-mail; and/or
(iii)
no or invalid instruction for recipients to opt-out from
receiving future email from the sender.
Industry
cooperation
8.
We recognise the need for ISPs to co-operate, coordinate and
adopt a common approach to deal with spam e-mail and the senders of
spam (i.e. spammers) in Singapore. Towards that end, we are jointly
exploring ways to address the problem (e.g. closer cooperation
amongst ISPs to address spam complaints, tracking source of the spam
e-mail etc).
Technology
Pilots & Trials
9.
Anti-spam technology and technical solutions form an
important pillar in any anti-spam strategy, especially to combat
spam that originates from overseas. As there are many technological
solutions available in the market, ISPs look forward to evaluating
the feasibility of these technological solutions.
Public
Education
10.
End-users need to be better informed about the various
measures they can take to minimise the adverse effects of spam
e-mail. We see public education as a way where we can assist our
customers to better understand and manage the spam problem.
11.
We believe that public education efforts need to be targeted
not only at the end-users but also at the e-mail marketers. Some less responsible senders of spam e-mail may not be aware
of the adverse effects of their marketing practices. We would thus like to encourage them to adopt responsible
e-mail marketing practices. Such
forms of e-mail marketing practices should provide recipients with
the opportunity to have their names removed from the marketers’
mailing list.
Anti-spam
guidelines
12.
We will work together in an effort to:
a)
Implement clear policies that strongly discourage subscribers
from using the ISPs’ facilities for sending spam e-mail.
b)
Provide clear feedback procedures for subscribers with
regards to spam.
c)
Co-operate with each other to address subscriber’s
feedback, for example, tracing the source of the spam e-mail,
warning subscribers who send spam mail and taking appropriate
actions against such subscribers.
d)
Implement certain technical measures to manage the spam
problem.
e)
Make available to subscribers information on managing spam,
including information on email filtering tools and options.
f)
Educate subscribers to raise awareness and enhance a general
understanding of the spam problem, and to encourage them to take
preventive actions.
Jointly Issued by Pacific
Internet Ltd, SingNet Pte Ltd and StarHub Pte Ltd
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Previous FrontPage Edition 25 May 2004
