Government's spam report little more than 'a childish wishlist'

The All Party Internet Group (APIG) today unveiled a list of recommendations it is making based on its inquiry into the problem of spam email.

But the announcement raised concerns for some that the exercise may be as much about PR as it is about making a realistic attempt to cut down on the levels of spam.

APIG treasurer Brian White MP admitted the inquiry was brought about by pressure from constituents but declined to give a firm indication of how successful he expects it to be in the long term - suggesting it is as important that MPs be seen to be doing something, even if it has little impact.

Among the recommendations is a call for the DTI to review the laws governing email 'cold-calling' to businesses to "explicitly ban the sending of spam to business addresses".

The report also calls upon the DTI to "show their full and formal support for properly operated blocklists" and also calls on overseas governments to draw up anti-spam legislation in line with European directives.

But in the eyes of industry experts the recommendations appear "woolly" at best.

Alyn Hockey, director of research at email filtering specialist Clearswift, told silicon.com that the recommendations are little more than fantasy.

"It reads like a child's wishlist," said Hockey, highlighting the gulf which exists between the ideology of the recommendations and the likelihood of them being implemented and proving successful.

Not least of the problems is the inherent difficulty in implementing EU-specific laws to crack down on a global problem.

"Just having EU jurisdiction isn't going to help when 90 per cent of spam is originating from places such as the US and China," said Hockey. "It's good to see that the government has recognised the problem and is attempting to do something about it but how effective it's going to be - we'll just have to wait and see."

The report does recommend closer cooperation between international policy makers and bodies but again Hockey believes this is something which sounds fine in principal but is unlikely to bear fruit in the long term.

Already the UK and US are pulling in different directions with the UK favouring an opt-in policy and the US hiding behind its constitution and favouring an opt-out policy.

In the simplest terms, spammers such as pornographers, who came in for particular criticism from the panel of MPs present at the launch of the report, are unlikely to care about UK or EU legislation.

In terms of what successes we may see come from the recommendations, the answers are now very much in the government's hands. APIG has made its recommendations but must now see what is adopted and when.

Sounding a tone of realism Derek Wyatt MP, chairman of APIG, said: "It would be a shame if we were sat here this time next year talking about the same kinds of problem but government does move incredibly slowly."

Next on the agenda for the APIG team is a trip to Washington to try to convince the US of the problems presented by its insistence on opt-out policy which threatens to undermine the whole global fight against spam.

Hockey said: "The key lies in developing comparable and complementary legislation through international co-operation. Getting the US and UK to agree on anti-spam measures will be vital. While Congress seems likely to pass a soft opt-out law, in the UK we believe an opt-in law would be far more effective."

He added: "I'd love to be a fly on the wall during the APIG visit next week."