Ordinary Gweilo

Astonishing advice in Friday’s SCMP (Get ready to opt out of junk phone calls, faxes):

Hongkongers will be able to block annoying advertising text messages, prerecorded phone calls and promotional faxes from next year but there is still no quick-fix solution for junk e-mail.

The enacting of the second phase of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance would ban commercial electronic messages with three do-not-call registers – for fax, SMS and pre-recorded phone calls – in phases starting from tomorrow. All 14 million fax and phone numbers in use in Hong Kong will be able to register to block advertising messages by dialling the hotlines at any time except between 11pm and midnight.

Senders of commercial electronic messages would be in breach of the ordinance if they continued to deliver messages to the numbers in the list after the bans came into force next year.

But a register would not be set up for e-mail users to reject spamming, the Office of the Telecommunication Authority said yesterday.

“Overseas experience reveals that such registers can become a goldmine for professional spammers,” said Ofta director Marion Lai Chan Chi-kuen. “It is more realistic not to set it up.”

Yes, but…

Assistant director So Tat-foon said the nuisance caused by junk e-mails could be resolved by making an “unsubscribe” request to the message sender.

That’s the very last thing you want to do!  Many junk emails are sent on a speculative basis to email addresses that may or may not exist.  Requesting to unsubscribe simply confirms that the email address exists and is being used. 

Mr So added that under the ordinance, the subject of a commercial e-mail must not be misleading.

“If an e-mail sender was a promotion of product or service, it could not write ‘Merry Christmas’ in the e-mail subject title,” he said.

Well, yes, good luck with enforcing that one.  What will they do when the email turns out not to have originated in Hong Kong?  Aren’t companies allowed to send an email to their customers wishing them a happy Christmas or a prosperous New Year and also mention their products or services?