No silver bullet for spam problem, says Industry Canada ADM

Industry Canada announced April 11 the creation of a Spam Task Force, a ministerial committee to combat unsolicited commercial email. The 10-member body is charged with finding ways to reduce unsolicited email, which is estimated to account for about 60% of overall email traffic. Asked why the task force has been created when some academics and industry players say Canada need only enforce the laws it currently has in such acts as the Criminal Code, the Telecommunications Act, privacy and competition legislation (see affiliated publication Network Letter, April 28/04), Industry Canada ADM Michael Binder responds, "Because the problem of spam is a very difficult and complex issue, we’ve established the Spam Task Force to get some ideas from different perspectives - consumers’, industry and marketing - because we’re also promoting the electronic commerce and online business, and we don’t want to shut down that aspect." Because of the complexity of the spam problem, says Binder, enforcement of existing laws is very difficult. It’s also costly and labour intensive to track the spammers, and the police have higher priorities, such as terrorism and crime. "Nobody dies from spam," Binder says. "Now, we are trying to focus aggressively on this issue. It’s not only a problem for Canada, it’s a global problem. Nobody in the world has found an effective solution to it so far, so there isn’t a formula. Also, there isn’t an international consensus on this problem, which makes things worse," Binder says. He believes that the best approach would be a combination of better law enforcement, better managing of networks, better filtering of email and better education of users. "That’s why we didn’t come up with some new bill, because we believe that we have a combination of bills, and each of them has a different vision of the problem. We’re going to see how to apply all of those before we decide whether or not we need a new bill." According to the department, The Spam Task Force will "oversee the implementation of a six-point action plan, calling for specific initiatives by government and the private sector, including: the use of existing laws and regulatory measures; the review of regulatory or legislative gaps; the improvement of current industry practices; the use of technology to validate legitimate commercial communications; the enhancement of consumer education and awareness; and, the promotion of an international framework to fight spam." After a series of meetings with key stakeholders, the Task Force will present its findings and recommendations to reduce and control spam in the spring of 2005. Asked why will it take so long to come up with the measures against spam, Binder said: "I don’t think that’s a long time. Some people think there’s a ready-made solution to this problem, but there isn’t a silver bullet that’ll fix it overnight. There’s going to be a whole series of initiatives. If we find out that someone came up with some really clever way of solving this problem, we’ll implement it right away."

No silver bullet for spam problem, says Industry Canada ADM

Broadcast | May 28, 2004

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