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SINGAPORE: A new law to curb junk email and SMS (Short Message Service) messages was passed in Parliament on Thursday.
While not a magic bullet solution, the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts said the anti-spam law is a start.
It would protect consumers from unwanted messages while still giving businesses some leeway to market their products, added Dr Lee Boon Yang.
Spam is an annoying and expensive problem.
"The IDA (Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore) carried out a study in November 2003 and found that email spam caused Singapore users about $23m loss in productivity. 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," Dr Lee told Parliament.
Among the changes passed in the Spam Control Bill is an opt-out option for those who do not wish to receive spam.
The Bill also sets out basic requirements for legitimate direct electronic mass marketing.
For instance, messages must be labelled advertisements in their headers, and there must be an unsubscribing facility.
But with four out of five spam messages originating from overseas, MPs feared such local legislation would only hurt local players.
"Given that the bulk of spam is from overseas, we can reasonably expect that the winners will be the foreign spammers with Viagra and organ enlargers. The losers will be our local law-abiding SMEs who are trying to leverage the Internet as a low-cost marketing medium to promote their business," said MP Ho Geok Choo.
MPs also said it might be better to have an opt-in clause instead of an opt-out, as this shifts the burden from individual consumers to businesses to make sure only solicited emails are sent.
Replying, Dr Lee said what was needed for now was a light hand which protects end users while not making it too onerous for genuine marketers.
Wrapping up the debate, Dr Lee acknowledged the MPs' views that similar legislation in other countries - for example the US - has not been effective in eliminating spam.
But this does not mean such laws are completely unnecessary.
Dr Lee said: "We have to expect that as more countries enact legislation to deal with spam, the spammers will be on the look-out for new base, new havens for them to operate from. They are, in fact, therefore, very likely to target countries that have advanced infocomm connectivities and are without anti-spam legislation. So, Singapore can well become a target for spammers to operate from because we have excellent international infocomm connectivity worldwide."
An anti-spam Bill, he added, would help maintain Singapore's standing as a trusted infocomm hub. - CNA/ir
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