Aussies cook up anti-spam recipe

The Australian government is drafting innovative laws to combat spam, notes Barbara Neilsen

I hate to rub it in, but while you are reading this, I am probably sunning myself on the beautiful beaches of Queensland, Australia, or walking in mountains untouched by the hand of man, and watching parrots fly overhead.

Despite the many difficulties of working from home, at least I have the flexibility to travel, and still meet publishing deadlines via the internet.

Anyway, while I am here, I intend to investigate IT initiatives being undertaken by the Australian government, and the first is spam.

My brother is a university IT lecturer, and he gets over a hundred spams a day, which take valuable time to delete. I know that IT Week readers have the same problem, but I had not personally seen such a mess before, which prompted me to find out how they are combating the problem Down Under.

On 16 April, the Australian minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, who is also deputy leader of the government in the Senate - I have written before about the lack of such a comparable position in the UK parliament - issued a report proposing anti-spam laws.

The report states that spam is clogging the arteries of the internet and stealing bandwidth from ordinary Australians, who are heartily sick of emails touting black market drugs, celebrity porn, bogus prizes, Nigerian money laundering and other false and/or fraudulent material.

Back home, the new EU regulations covering spam will require businesses to gain prior consent before sending unsolicited emails. Use of cookies or other tracking devices should be clearly indicated and people given the opportunity to reject them. Mobile operators and their partners will be allowed to provide customers with value-added services such as traffic and weather updates, where consent has been given, and there will be strong rights for individuals to decide if they wish to be listed in subscriber directories.

Australia too has endorsed the opt-in approach, but includes a few other clauses that seem sensible. One is a legal requirement for all commercial electronic messaging to contain accurate details of the sender's name and physical and electronic addresses. And the Australian government recommends that industry bodies should co-operate to implement codes of practice to ensure that their members comply with the law.

There is a requirement for ISPs to make filtering options available to clients, from an approved schedule of spam filtering tools, at reasonable cost, and that ISPs should evaluate and publicise filtering options and products.

It is pointed out that technical solutions such as antivirus and firewall products can make a significant impact on spam, but they are unlikely to fully address the problem for email users until there is a wider implementation and use of digital certificates.

Australia will work with international organisations such as OECD and Apec to develop global guidelines and co-operative mechanisms to combat spam. But it seems to me that no matter where you are in the world, we still have a long way to go before we get rid of the beast.

Have your say: reply to IT Week