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Source: www.mica.gov.sg |
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Second Reading Speech on the
Spam Control Bill 2007 |
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by Dr Lee Boon Yang Minister
for Information, Communications and the Arts. |
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Thurs, 12 April 2007 |
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Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, ¡°That the
Bill be now read a Second time¡±. |
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Introduction |
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Sir, digital communication is now an
integral part of our lives, both at work and at home. We use email and
sms routinely. |
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For an increasing number of Singaporeans,
email and sms are default modes of communication. They are personal,
convenient, fast and offer global reach. |
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These advantages also bring along a problem
in the form of unsolicited emails and even sms-es. |
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This problem arises when large amount of
emails are sent indiscriminately, a practice known as ¡°spamming¡±,
causing network congestion, inundating users¡¯ inboxes and impeding the
effectiveness of email and mobile messages as instantaneous
communication channels. |
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Most of us would have received some form of
unsolicited commercial electronic messages or ¡°spam¡± either through
email or mobile telephone messages. |
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The Infocomm Development Authority of
Singapore (IDA) carried out a study1 in November 2003 and
found that email spam caused Singapore users about $23 million in
productivity loss. Users are burdened with the time-consuming task of
separating the wheat from the chaff. |
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The study further revealed that each of the
three major local internet service providers (or ISPs) received close to
5,000 spam-related complaints a month. The users interviewed perceived
email spam as the second most important concern after computer viruses.
This concern has not changed over time. |
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However in this digital age, email and
mobile messages are also important means of business communication for
reaching external stakeholders such as customers and suppliers. |
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In particular, electronic messages offer
direct marketers an important and cost-effective means of reaching out
to potential customers on a large scale. It is an important avenue for
companies wanting to market their products or services directly and
cheaply to potential consumers. |
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Approach adopted |
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Sir, spam is clearly an emergent global
problem. In the process of formulating our response to address the spam
issue here in Singapore, my Ministry has carefully studied the
approaches adopted in various major benchmark jurisdictions including
the US, the EU, the UK, Australia, Japan and South Korea. |
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We note that even among the more advanced
countries there is currently no standard solution. |
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In addressing the spam issue, many countries
have realised that several measures have to be deployed. We are no
different from countries that have taken steps to deal with spam ahead
of us. We also need a multi-pronged approach including public education,
industry self-regulation, international collaboration and last but not
least legislation. |
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Sir, users can play a part in dealing with
the spam problem by installing anti-spam filters and firewalls on their
personal computers to filter out undesirable spam and to prevent
spammers from turning vulnerable computers into spamming machines. |
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On the industry action front, IDA has worked
with the Singapore Infocomms Technology Federation (SiTF) on public
education efforts to raise public and industry awareness on spam and how
to mitigate its impact. |
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Industry-wise, IDA is also working with the
ISPs to set up self-regulation frameworks and the Direct Marketing
Association of Singapore (DMAS) to formulate antispam and email
marketing guidelines. |
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In the area of international collaboration,
in 2004, Singapore joined 26 countries in an exercise to reduce the flow
of spam internationally. Currently there are ongoing informal
international collaborations between ISPs to address spamming incidents. |
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To strengthen the multi-pronged approach to
combat spam, IDA conducted extensive public consultations in 2004 and
2005 with both the industry and the public on the proposal to enact
legislation to deal with spam. |
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A total of 90 responses were received during
the two public consultations. These public responses provided the
support and contributed input for MICA to formulate the Spam Control
Bill before the House today. |
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Spam-Specific Legislation |
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Sir, besides the importance of public
education and industry efforts to curb spam, an anti-spam legislation is
needed to discourage the proliferation of email and mobile spam. |
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Members of the House may ask whether we need
such legislation when we already have the Computer Misuse Act and
Telecommunications Act. |
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These existing laws govern serious and
malicious offences such as denial-of-service attacks and severe
disruptions to telecommunications infrastructure. |
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The typical volume of email and mobile
messages generated by spammers usually do not result in such severe
breakdown of services. Hence existing laws are not appropriate
instruments to use against spam. |
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A more focussed approach is needed to signal
that spamming is socially unacceptable and to preserve Singapore¡¯s
status as a trusted infocomm hub for businesses and consumers. |
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I must however emphasise that this Bill is
not a magic bullet to eradicate all spamming activities overnight. |
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The IDA¡¯s 2003 study showed that 4 out of
every 5 spam received locally originates overseas. Our laws would thus
only have a limited effect in addressing this problem. |
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However, this does not mean that we should
do nothing. By putting in place this spam control legislation, my
Ministry is not only acting to deter international spammers from
exploiting Singapore¡¯s world-class telecommunications infrastructure as
a base for spamming, but we are also stating clearly and unambiguously
that Singapore is ready to address the global problem of spam in concert
with other advanced infocomm nations of the world. |
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Details of the Bill |
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Defined Scope |
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Sir, please allow me now go into the details
of the Bill. |
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The Spam Control Bill seeks to prevent local
spammers from abusing direct marketing mechanisms. |
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The Bill sets out basic requirements for
legitimate direct electronic mass marketing, and provides civil recourse
for any affected persons against illegal spam with a Singapore link. A
Singapore link exists, as stated in Clause 7 of the Bill, when for
instance the message originates in Singapore, or if the recipient of the
message is physically in Singapore. |
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Apart from email messages, the scope of the
Bill also covers SMS (Short Message Service) messages and MMS
(Multimedia Messaging Service) messages sent to a mobile telephone
number. |
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Given that the mobile telephone in today¡¯s
context is a personalised device, mobile spam can be more intrusive than
email spam. This was made quite clear during the public consultation on
spam. |
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Fortunately, mobile spam is currently not a
major problem in Singapore. However, consumer complaints have arisen
from time to time to suggest that this channel could potentially be
abused. |
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Today, we have very high mobile phone
penetration rate in Singapore and the likelihood that the economics of
sending SMS and MMS in bulk for marketing purposes may become
increasingly cost-effective in the future. This suggest that we should
address the problem of mobile spam proactively. |
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The inclusion of mobile spam within the
scope of this legislation aims to promote the responsible use of mobile
messaging services and stave off the undesirable proliferation of mobile
spam in the future. |
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More..... |
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1 The study done in 2003 is only
on email, not mobile |
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Source: www.mica.gov.sg
Media Release 12 Apr 2007 |
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Related Article: |
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Legislation against spam to be put in place in Singapore |
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