28 July 2005

Welcome anti-spam Bill should be extended to VoIP abuse

The Greens welcome the Government's anti-spam bill, Information Technology Spokesperson Nandor Tanczos says.

Associate Minister for Information Technology David Cunliffe tabled the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill in Parliament today.

"Spam is becoming an increasing issue for New Zealanders generally and business in particular. Latest reports are that three-quarters of unfiltered mail is spam," Nandor says.

"While the Greens don't believe legislation is the only solution, we recognise the need to keep New Zealand in line with international best practise and not open this country up as a haven for spammers.

"However, we would still like to see some provision to include phone marketing to prevent the abuse of Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to make mass pre-recorded advertising calls.

"We have had a number of complaints from members of the public about unsolicited pre-recorded calls from a certain church. As there is no 'real' person at the end of the line, you cannot tell them to remove your number from their database. This could only be the beginning if VoIP is not covered by this Bill," Nandor says.

ENDS

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