HL Deb 07 November 2002 vol 640 c134WA
The Earl of Northesk

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What their policy is towards the marketing technique, closely allied to the practice of spamming and recently reported in the media in respect of e-greeting cards, whereby computer users are invited to install an application on their computer, the licence of which grants permission for e-mails to be sent to all contacts in a user's e-mail address book. [HL6279]

Lord Sainsbury of Turville:

The recent media reports concern an e-mail that invites the recipient to collect an e-greetings card from one of two websites. On visiting one of these websites, the recipient is invited to install an application onto their computer in order to view the e-greetings card. The installation process includes the display of two end user licence agreements, the second of which states that by installing the application the user is allowing a similar greetings card to be sent to all the e-mail addresses in the user's e-mail address book, and that if they object to this they should not download, install, access or use the websites concerned. It is only by agreeing to these licence agreements that recipients will allow their own contacts to be e-mailed in the same way.

Although all but the initial e-mail addresses are supplied by the recipients, the originators of this e-mail are sending direct marketing communications by means of unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE). The Government encourage all direct marketers to adopt responsible techniques, to take account of consumer preferences where available and to target their marketing as far as possible. The regulatory framework for UCE, including industry codes of conduct and legislation, is still developing. The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 require UCE to be easily identifiable as such as soon as it is received, enabling automatic filtering or deletion. The new Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications to be implemented by October 2003 will require an opt-in approach to UCE sent to individuals except where there is an existing relationship between the parties.