War on unsolicited e-mails, faxes, messages and calls hinges on help from rest of world, minister admits
The government has set an ambitious target to curb all forms of electronic junk messages sent to or from Hong Kong but has admitted its success will hinge on international collaboration.
The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill, which will be gazetted today and introduced into the Legislative Council on Wednesday next week, features fines ranging from $100,000 to $1 million and jail terms of up to five years for breaches.
The bill also grants the public civil rights to make claims for losses caused by such messages.
It covers all unwanted electronic messages of a commercial nature, including e-mails, mobile phone text messages, fax messages and voice or video calls, as long as they have a Hong Kong link.
However, promotional phone calls made by people, without any pre-recorded or synthesised element, are exempted as a measure to protect small and medium-sized enterprises that have limited budgets for promotion.
The bill also proposes an opt-out provision, as well as a 'do not call' register. Under these provisions, message senders will be required to provide a free facility that allows recipients to choose not to receive communications from them. And the Telecommunications Authority will set up a register for those who do not want to receive pre-recorded voice calls, fax messages and mobile phone messages. The register will not apply to emails, however.
