Secretary for Commerce, Industry & Technology John Tsang says a local anti-spam legislation can prevent Hong Kong from becoming a safe haven sheltering illicit spammers.

Speaking at a Foreign Correspondents' Club luncheon today, Mr Tsang said such a law will facilitate co-operation with overseas jurisdictions in investigation and enforcement work against spammers.

The legislation should have a deterrent effect on irresponsible e-marketers spamming fax and automated dialling pre-recorded marketing messages.

Finding a balance

"Over the past two months, we have been discussing actively with stakeholder groups from the industry, the business sector, legal experts and consumer organisations on the draft legislative framework with a view to finding a balance between protecting recipients' rights and enabling the proper development of e-marketing and e-commerce," Mr Tsang said.

"We also explored the merits of the 'opt-in' and the 'opt-out' approaches, and how each would impact on the business sector. We aim to firm up the framework for wider public consultation later this year and introduce the legislation the following year."

He also gave an update on all Government initiatives to contain the problem of spam under the STEPS campaign announced in February.

Progress update

The Government is actively discussing with fixed network operators the possibility of reducing the timeframe required to cut access to telecommunications services by irresponsible fax advertisers who persistently ignore advice to stop sending fax advertisements.

It is also discussing with mobile network operators to extend an existing Code of Practice for the handling of inter-operator unsolicited promotional Short Message Service to cover intra-operator unsolicited promotional SMS.

"We are hopeful that, in the next few months, these improvements will be put in place, and the problem can be better moderated," Mr Tsang said.

On technical solutions, the Government is liaising with the industry to organise seminars and conferences in the next few months to encourage users to adopt technical solutions to protect themselves from spam email.

A dedicated theme page advising on the latest technical solutions and the spam problem is being developed. The Government is also developing a targeted education and promotion programme to raise awareness.