According to an Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) study last year, 1.33 million Singapore e-mail users have been spammed. In a consultation paper open for feedback until late this month, the IDA proposes opt-out anti-spam legislation for Singapore which is already used in the US, Japan and South Korea. What it means is that, unless users opt out, marketers are free to send them commercial, unsolicited e-mail. This approach, IDA argues, balances businesses' right to advertise with users' wish not to be swamped. For this, the IDA got an earful from the Consumers Association of Singapore.

Another route may be created when legislation leads to generation of a 'do not e-mail' list. However, if such a list were generated, spammers might access the information and use it. This suggests that consumers may be better off not signing up for a 'do not e-mail' list if one is eventually implemented. A third possibility is that, by removing the stigma from spam, the proposed law could unleash spam from legitimate businesses that previously feared being labelled as spammers.

These three drawbacks should give cause for pause in the run-up to passing any anti-spam legislation. Full article can be found at The Straits Times