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Seanad Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 26 Nov 2003

Vol. 174 No. 18

Adjournment Matters. - Unsolicited E-mail.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to speak on this issue which is daily increasing in importance. I compliment the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources on his recent initiative, which has received the support of our EU neighbours, to outlaw and eliminate spam. A study by the US research organisation, Pew Internet, has found that unsolicited e-mail or spam is beginning to have a detrimental effect on e-mail use. It has led most people to distrust e-mails. For example, 75% of e-mail users are upset that they cannot stop the flow of spam while 70% say that spam has made being on-line unpleasant and annoying and 30% are concerned that their filtering devices may block incoming mail that is important to them. However, on the other side of the argument, 7% of respondents in the United States, a figure which represents roughly 8 million people, reported that they have ordered a product or service offered in an unsolicited e-mail. Moreover, one third of e-mail users say they have clicked on a link in an unsolicited commercial e-mail to get more information. Thus, given the low overheads attached to spam, a percentage such as this indicates that it is more than worthwhile for "spammers" to keep sending bulk mail.

Junk or spam e-mail costs Irish business, without filtering protection, some €2 billion per annum, according to estimates from IE Internet. Spam accounts for 95% of some workers' e-mails while 12% of junk mail causes viruses, 13% of e-mails received by Irish business users are spam and 98% of those unsolicited e-mails are generated out of the country. The survey adds that small businesses can expect at least ten to 12 spams a day, some receiving up to 50. US data also show that unsolicited e-mails cost on average $1,500 per employee, per annum.

When I first raised this issue on the Order of Business some weeks ago I said I was receiving between 50 and 75 unsolicited e-mails a day. The waste of time is what affects business but the depraved nature of many of these unsolicited e-mails is also worrying. As I said, 98% are generated in the United States. If one separates those which offer mortgages at US interest rates and other American products, most are pornographic in nature. I have a young family and must restrict access to the Internet.

In an ever-changing world of growing immorality, with violence and sex of the most graphic kind on television at the touch of a button, material which is also available now on Playstation software which is unregistered in this country and does not have to be submitted to the censor, we have a responsibility as parents to ensure children are allowed their innocence. Spam and unsolicited e-mail of this kind is totally unacceptable.

I am pleased to inform the House that over the weekend, the US Senate and House of Representatives have finally decided to grapple with this issue. Their law states that spammers will be barred from disguising their identity by using a false return address or misleading subject line. The harvesting of addresses from websites will be barred, e-mails must include a mechanism for recipients to opt out of future e-mails and the technique of sending millions of messages to randomly generated addresses will be banned. The law also prohibits the use of misleading subject lines, but a comprehensive solution must combine strong laws and enforcement with industry co-operation, technological innovation and the empowerment of informed sources. Microsoft and other providers, including America Online, British Telecom, Comcast, EarthLink and Yahoo are working together to shut down spammers who use deceptive tactics to circumvent filters or avoid detection.

However, every e-mail user can take steps to fight spam. The first step is to make sure one has activated the spam filters built into most e-mail programmes. One should never reply to spam or unsolicited e-mails, even to unsubscribe, unless one is sure the sender is legitimate. That was how I was the architect of my own downfall. Some two years ago, when I began receiving spam on my personal computer, I was given the message that it was a certain company's policy not to send unsolicited e-mails, and that if I wished to be taken off its list, I should click "unsubscribe". After I had done this on about 25 spam messages, my brother, who works in the computer industry, told me that all I had done was to alert the spammers that my e-mail address was an active one.

I plead with the Minister of State that in his reply he would, in the context of the initiative being adopted here, convey to the general public the measures that can be taken to minimise not just this annoying and irritating aspect of modern life, but the very dangerous dimension I outlined earlier. People should be cautious about giving out their primary e-mail addresses, review the privacy policies of websites when signing up for online services and report junk e-mail to the originating Internet service provider.

Despite the initiative taken by the US Congress, the law has been widely criticised as being flawed. Industry lobbying prompted legislators to create a single set of rules for e-mail advertisements, solicited and unsolicited. E-mail messages from fly by night operations selling herbal impotence remedies are not differentiated from those sent by airlines selling plane tickets to a pre-existing customer base. Messages from both would have to include legitimate e-mail addresses and a method for recipients to opt out. Herbal impotence remedies incidentally constitute a large proportion of the unsolicited e-mails I get, and for those uninitiated in impotence remedies, I am talking about Viagra in all its shapes and forms. Thank God I do not need it yet.

California seems to have the right model, and it might well be looked at. California requires companies to have consumers' consent before sending commercial e-mails. However, the federal law passed last weekend in the US Congress overrides State law, and is already causing a conflict between State and federal rights. Debra Bowen, a Democrat and State Senator from California, who is a proponent of her State's anti-spam Bill, has said the Bill in Congress does not can spam, but legalises it. The Bill is full of loopholes, difficult to enforce and weaker than many state laws.

If we are to grapple with this, there is a need for a cohesive and unified approach. The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Dermot Ahern, has already started that particular initiative by ensuring that within the European Union, sending spam is now illegal, but as I said earlier, 98% of spam is being generated outside Ireland and indeed outside the EU – it is coming from America.

There are only some 200 identified spammers generating these millions of unsolicited e-mails. What they will do, and have already started to do, is to go offshore. They are going to Canada, to the emerging countries of eastern Europe and to China. There is a need, which I hope the Minister will address, for international co-ordination on this issue. It is not sufficient to look at the European Union. We must talk to the Americans but also to those in other parts of the world, especially Australia. If we can get international co-ordination, a legislative framework that is supported and enforced by the industry and the major countries, we will set the benchmark for other countries now being seen as the recipients.

As a result of the US law and the EU initiative, we will focus on the origins and the source of these e-mails. We will not be able to eliminate them, but we can go a long way towards damaging them. I hope the Minister's initiative will be fully supported in the European Union and at a more international level.

On 6 November last my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Dermot Ahern, signed into force the European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services, Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 2003. These regulations transpose Directive 2002/58/EC, which regulates the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector. They introduce restrictions on direct marketing making use of communications networks. Restrictions on unsolicited direct marketing by telephone, fax, automated calling systems, e-mail, SMS and MMS are provided for. Most notably, the regulations also introduce a ban on spam originating in the EU. Spam, unsolicited e-mail marketing sent to individuals, is, with a limited exception covering existing customer relationships, only allowed with prior consent. This opt-in regime equally covers SMS messages and other electronic messages sent to any mobile and fixed terminal. Some protections against unsolicited commercial e-mails to businesses are also provided.

The regulations provide for penalties of up to €3,000 for each unsolicited e-mail, SMS or MMS sent in breach of the regulations. The Minister is also considering the creation of indictable offences and consequential additional penalties to further enhance protections for both consumers and business.

It is important to realise that many administrations worldwide do not have legislation regulating spam. While efforts to achieve international co-operation on measures to combat the proliferation of spam are at an early stage, there are encouraging signs that co-ordinated action will be achievable. I understand that this week the United States Senate approved a Bill, to which Senator Mooney has alluded, to outlaw most spam. Australia and South Korea have also recently reached agreement on measures to combat spam. There is now an increasing awareness among administrations and business that global co-operation is necessary to address the specific threat posed to online business and consumer activity by spam.

We are not convinced that it is desirable for Ireland to attempt to address such matters in isolation. We believe that Ireland's forthcoming Presidency of the European Union offers an excellent opportunity to further progress international co-operation and effective enforcement.

We consider that a mix of various instruments will be needed, including legislation, filtering techniques, self-regulation, commercial contracts and international co-operation. Initially, the primary objective of international co-operation is to promote the adoption of effective legislation in third countries and subsequently to co-operate with these countries to ensure effective enforcement of legislation.

At the multilateral level, we believe that active participation is necessary in fora such as the OECD, where work on spam has started. Indeed the European Commission will host an OECD workshop on spam in February of next year, intended to contribute to a better understanding of the problem created by spam and its possible solutions.

At the UN level, the Commission has also raised the issue of spam in the context of the forthcoming world summit on the information society to be held in Geneva for 10 -12 December this year in order to promote awareness and international co-operation on this issue. While there is some scope for the promotion of bilateral co-operation with third countries, a more efficient approach and response can be delivered through international fora, for example the OECD and the world summit on the information society, and through their bilateral meetings and discussions, for example at ASEM, NAFTA and so on.

EU provisions relating to spam apply to both PC and mobile phone messages. My advice to consumers is to be aware while on-line and to ensure the bona fides of companies and individuals with whom they are in contact. People should only give an e-mail address to people and sites they trust.

The most effective way to ensure an e-mail box does not become cluttered with junk mail is for a person to keep his or her e-mail address private. To do this, the person should only give his e-mail address to people he knows and to sites that explicitly say they will not share e-mail addresses with third parties in their privacy policy. Always check that an Internet site has a specific privacy policy or provides guarantees as to how they use personal data. If an e-mail address is necessary for Internet services which a person suspects may send a vast amount of e-mails or share the address with third parties, it may be a good idea to set-up a separate e-mail address for use exclusively with this type of service. People should use e-mail filtering tools – there are many e-mail packages and stand alone programs that possess the ability to filter out unwanted e-mails. The method by which this is accomplished varies between programs but techniques such as blocking certain addresses or keywords are applied.

I agree with Senator Mooney that we all need to be aware, particularly those of us who are parents. There can be serious consequences for young people who are accessing the Internet unsupervised and are receiving spam from across the world. This is an important issue and the Senator has done a good job in highlighting it. The Government is determined to deal with it and we hope to use the Presidency of the EU to achieve international co-operation to address this issue across the world.

I acknowledge the Oireachtas Library for providing me with the statistical information on the problem and Ailish O'Hora who wrote an article in the business section of the Irish Independent on the impact of spam on Irish business.

Will the Minister of State or anyone else attend a European Forum for Electronic Business seminar, "Spam – the Death of e-Mail", which will start at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, on 3 December? Does the Minister of State agree with Senator Conrad Burns, a Republican from Montana, who sponsored the Can-Spam Act, that there will not be a cut back in the amount of spam until someone is caught and prosecuted and he knows for sure that we are serious about the enforcement of the law?

I agree. Garda investigations into the illegal use of the Internet show that where prosecutions have succeeded, they have had a major impact. I will bring the conference to which the Senator referred to the attention of the Minister and his officials immediately.

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