Hong Kong Proposes Outlawing All Unsolicited Commercial Email... Even For Those With Existing Relationships
from the a-bit-extreme dept
There have been plenty of complaints about the US's CAN SPAM law and the equivalent law in the UK that has been fairly useless, mainly due to all of the loopholes. Over in Hong Kong, it looks like they're trying to create their own anti-spam law that doesn't come with such loopholes. In fact, it has so few loopholes that it could potentially outlaw all sorts of commercial email that most people probably wouldn't consider spam. Basically, the law won't allow any email to have any marketing message whatsoever, unless the recipient has specifically requested it -- even in cases of pre-existing relationships. While it does sound like some of the marketing folks may be overreacting (saying things like product recall notices would be illegal under the law) you can also see how this particular law may go a bit overboard in outlawing all sorts of email that most people probably wouldn't consider spam. What this really highlights, however, is just how difficult it is to come up with a law that can successfully outlaw spam. If there are any loopholes, then spammers will figure out ways to exploit them. If there are no loopholes, then you're probably killing off plenty of legitimate email as well.
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In most cases, these sites had a tickbox "Receive newsletter" in the signup form. Thats fine with me - I unticked it, because I didn't intend to revisit the site or be a regular customer. I don't want to know about their specials etc.
If one of these sites sends me a newsletter without my permission, even a once off "Hey, would you like to sign up to our newsletter? Heres a sample!", I won't be happy with them. Far better to get permission before even sending that first one.
This method would pass the proposed HK laws, because I specifically requested it when signing up. And because I've requested it, I'm far more likely to pay attention to it and buy the products. Win-win?
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Re:
Create an alias. When they start sending you crap, you can delete them, and you don't have to change your real account email address
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I like
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Mail problem not spam problem
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commies...
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As such, it might be possible to prevent spammers in living Hong Kong from spamming people living in Hong Kong...but would it stop spammers living in the EU..or other parts of the world?
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Simple Laws
The key here is mass sent. If I run a business or say I have a personal webpage with some artwork on it, it should be fine for some passerby to see my artwork, see my email on my webpage and send me a business related email saying "hey I like your work, lets to business" but not some mass generated email.
Furthermore this would kill email address farming/selling that so many companies do. I sign up for one site, they give my email to a few other sites, those companies send me _mass generated_ emails.
The only _mass generated_ email I should ever unsolicitely recieve from any company is some sort of crucial notification, such as a recall, class action suit that I may qualify for etc.
And of course, all mass emails, even solicited ones, should have a "unsubscribe" link at the bottom that should take no more than a total of 2 clicks to complete (one to click the link, one to confirm the action) none of this making me "log in" to change my email settings with an account I never even set up in the first place.
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I don't see a problem
Where's the problem? If you have one email address and it gets inundated with junk, there are many solutions out there. We don't need to make laws for which there are already solutions.
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Re: I don't see a problem
Now open your eyes and see it.
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Sign me up!
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IPv6
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THIS SHOULD BE A LAW WORLDWIDE.
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A thing of beuty
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Re:
And... a response to your previous post. I understand the issue you call a problem. What I was trying to explain in laymans terms is that there is no problem, if you have a solution. If you don't know what you're talking about, keep it to yourself. Again... on this forum, thanks for a snide, useless comment.
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i need to know more people in the world
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