Bill aims to block wireless junk email

By Patrick Ross

Staff Writer, CNET News.com

January 10, 2001, 10:40 a.m. PT
URL: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-4432707.html

WASHINGTON--In our wireless world, can solicitors find you anywhere within
cell range if you have a data-ready wireless phone
turned on?

Internet users have for years been complaining about unwanted email, or
spam, with messages that promise everything from quick
cash to an enhanced love life. Consumers now are concerned about spam sent
to their wireless devices such as Internet-ready
phones, and Congress is taking notice.

One of the first bills introduced this Congress would make it a criminal act
to send a solicitation to a wireless device without that
individual's express permission. Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., has been one of the
most vocal opponents of spam and first introduced this
bill at the end of the last Congress last fall. However, the legislation is
questioned both by the wireless industry and anti-spam
crusaders.

"With the wireless industry moving to build spam out" of its infrastructure,
said online privacy consultant Ray Everett-Church, "that is
going to be a lot more effective than a new law."

Holt could not immediately be reached for comment.

Everett-Church, co-founder of the anti-spam organization, Coalition Against
Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE), said Holt has
introduced legislation "before the system has been built to allow this
problem to occur."

In November, the Wireless Ad Association released a list of industry
guidelines that said "The WAA does not condone wireless
targeted advertising or content (push messaging) intentionally or
negligently sent to any subscriber's wireless mobile device without
explicit subscriber permission and clear identification of the sender."

The WAA defined push messaging as including audio, short message service
(SMS), email, multimedia messaging, cell broadcast,
picture messages, surveys, or any other pushed ads or content. The
guidelines advocate customer control of personally identifiable
information, or PII.

This endorsement of "opt-in," meaning a consumer must offer specific consent
before information can be sent to his or her device,
puts the wireless industry much farther down the road to privacy than the
larger Internet, Everett-Church said. He said advertisers
want to make sure people actually read wireless ads and don't dismiss them
the way junk email is dismissed.

WAA chairman Tim DePriest said the industry must be careful as "wireless
advertising has the potential to cause irreparable harm,
expense to the customer, and undermine the value of an important
communication line between customers and advertisers."

Holt and others in Congress have fought for several years to ban traditional
spam, and a bill by Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M.,
passed the House overwhelmingly last year after some controversial
provisions were removed. But no significant anti-spam bill has
ever become law, in part due to First Amendment concerns.

CAUCE has argued that it's not a violation of the U.S. Constitution if
spammers are forced to reimburse network providers and
consumers the cost that results from the transmission and receipt of the
unwanted email. It has been difficult, however, for
lawmakers to determine a fair way to calculate those costs.

The online advertising industry has proposed its own set of guidelines for
unsolicited email, but those guidelines aren't as strict as
the ones proposed by wireless advertisers. In addition, the Internet has an
open architecture, which makes it more difficult to control
unwanted messages than in a closed, proprietary wireless network.

That's why Everett-Church, who was a major supporter of the Wilson
legislation against spam last year, is less inclined to back
Holt's wireless spam bill.

"If you plan anti-spam technology into the wireless infrastructure, you have
a much greater chance" of eliminating spam, he said.

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