Put up for public consultation this month, the proposed legislation will be available for comment until March 20, at which point the Government will consider any amendments before the final version becomes law. Specifically, the proposed 84-page document relates to unsolicited electronic communications across three notable areas: email, mobile phones and faxes. The ADMA was part of a group lobbying the Government to reduce the amount of spam, in conjunction with the AntiSpam council, which included the Hong Kong ISP Association and Microsoft, among others.
"The proposed legislation basically requires that if you send somebody an email message in bulk, you need to include specific details of who is sending it, and you have to give consumers the opportunity to opt-out," said David Ketchum, chairman, ADMA.
According to Ketchum, the Hong Kong Government's opt-out model is similar to the US model, the Can-Spam Act passed in January 2004, but differs from the much stricter Europe standard, in which consumers must opt-in to digital marketing. He added that with an estimated 95 per cent of spam originated outside Hong Kong, the legislation would have a positive impact on domestic spam by reducing the practice.
"Every time a business abuses the way it uses email or other means, it is essentially reducing the effectiveness of the medium," said Ketchum.
A recent survey conducted by digital marketing company Radica Systems revealed Hong Kong consumers were extremely defensive against spam, with only six per cent opening an email from an unknown source, while 86 per cent deleted spam immediately.
The online Consumer Email Marketing Survey was conducted by Radica, ClickKnock, atNext.com, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Apple Daily, and canvassed the opinions of 4,400 online users.
"In Hong Kong, marketers have previously looked for instant, short-term results," said Francis Kwok, CEO Radica Systems, Hong Kong. "But they are beginning to find that they need to start building a permission-based database in order to better communicate personally with consumers in the future."
HK tables proposal to control email abuse
The Asia Digital Marketing Association (ADMA) has hailed the Hong Kong Government's proposed anti-spam legislation as a major step forward in the fight against unsolicited messages across the SAR.
