bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

Hong Kong aspires to be a modern city with technological developments identified by our administrative leaders as the focus of developmental efforts.

 I would question if we are ready for high technology when we cannot even manage the dis-economies of low technology.

 Take fax machines (which are a low-tech way of communication) as an example.

 In the US, Federal Communications regulations prohibit the transmission of anonymous faxes.

 However, fax communications are not subject to any communications control in Hong Kong and, as a result, are wide open to abuse.

 Hong Kong consumers who subscribe to fax lines for their own benefit are subject to the risk of having their fax machines 'hijacked' for the purposes of sending junk faxes.

 With the switch of business discussions to e-mail, nowadays faxes are principally used for the transmission of more important trade documents which require facsimile copies.

 However, it is not unusual for a fax machine owner to find that more than 75 per cent of his/her fax paper has been wasted by the receipt of junk faxes. This greatly increases the chance of a machine running out of paper and not being able to receive important documents, which defeats the object of having the machine in the first place.

 Yet our communications officials, either because of their misplaced magnanimity, or their inability to draft effective laws, think that the problem can be solved by the junk fax senders exercising a degree of self-discipline.

 I have talked to the customer care section of Cable and Wireless HKT and the company clearly knows about the more notorious junk fax senders, but junk faxes persist due to the lack of effective regulatory control.

 To identify anonymous senders of junk faxes is well nigh impossible. The threat to suspend a fax service is ineffective, because different names can be used to apply for a fax service from one of the fixed-line providers. In fact, even if the authorities could effectively deny a wrongdoer of a fax service, is that an appropriate penalty in the era of communications? Would a hefty fine and the liability to pay damages be more effective and appropriate?  I am amazed by the bureaucratic ingenuity of our officials who came up with the totally ineffective and inequitable idea of a register for victims of junk faxes to declare their refusal to accept junk faxes. The only register which I think would be suitable, would be one containing names of those who welcome junk faxes. Then, junk fax senders could restrict their transmissions to the names on that register.

 Our officials must note that anyone with important documents to receive via fax cannot afford the magnanimity of risking having their fax paper run out, because of junk faxes. The average fax service subscriber is tired of stocking up fax paper to serve junk fax senders. It is high time our officials stopped bureaucratic shadow boxing and came up with some effective solution.

 We must not allow the cost of junk faxes to be levied indiscriminately on all fax service subscribers.

PIERCE LAM Central 



Must act on junk faxes