§ Mrs. MayTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will make a statement on the Government's policy on action against junk E-mailers, known as spammers. [37579]
§ Mrs. Roche[holding answer 6 April 1998]: The EU Telecommunications Data Protection Directive, which must be implemented by October this year, provides protection from unsolicited calls for direct marketing purposes. The Government will be consulting on the implementation of the Directive, which may include e-mail, later this year.
The Data Protection Registrar has been working on a proposal to prevent people receiving unsolicited e-mails through the insertion of suppression markers in their Internet addresses and the Direct Marketing Association are working on ideas for an e-mail preference scheme.