At the risk of suffering the wrath of many an angry person, could I just
play devils advocate for a minute? It is Friday after all.
It occurs to me that when we buy or receive a mobile phone we are made aware
of the existence of Bluetooth, and what that enables use and others to do.
We also have the choice of turning our Bluetooth off if we desire. You can
even hide your phone.
My phone provides me with some information about hiding my phone on
Bluetooth. I quote "When Bluetooth is on, you can show your phone, or hide
it, from other devices. Hide your phone to save power and avoid unwanted
info (spam)." It seems Sony Ericsson knew about this a long time ago.
By leaving our Bluetooth on we are in effect accepting that we may receive a
message / file etc via Bluetooth.
With regard to a child receiving Bluespam, (again as devils advocate) I
would point to parental responsibility for allowing the child to have a
Bluetooth enabled phone. This I would put on a par with allowing a child to
watch late night TV, looking at Adult magazines, etc... Maybe we (the
public) should all be made more aware of spam and how to avoid it in all its
forms?
I am not sure whether Malware can be sent yet via Bluetooth. If it can, this
would concern me a little more than receiving spam and would prompt stronger
and swifter action I would suggest.
Dave
-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Trent [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 20 April 2007 08:46
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [data-protection] When is spam not spam?
The comparison between Bluespam and TV advertising is interesting, but I see
differences:
* I bought a TV understanding fully the nature of the programming, and
recognising that I pay a licence fee for public service broadcasting or have
adverts to pay for the other stuff, even Channel 5!
* I bought a phone to make and receive phone calls. The advertising by SMS
I can opt in to, should I want. BlueSpam is something that is unrelated to
paying for the service, and is something I do not want.
* I can control viewing in my TV such that I do not allow a minor child to
watch after the watershed, and thus I trust that they will not be exposed to
insalubrious material
* With BlueSpam a minor child can potentially receive an advert for a
vibrator when walking past an adult emporium
Certainly the point about TV advertising and BlueSpam being potentially
similar should be put to the UKIC.
The one wonderful difference is that the BlueSpam originates within a 30
foot radius of where I receive it! This means that a spammer is in reach!
Oh joy!
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Roland Perry
Sent: 19 April 2007 21:01
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [data-protection] When is spam not spam?
In message <[log in to unmask]>, at 17:29:53 on Thu, 19 Apr
2007, Nigel Roberts <[log in to unmask]> writes
>I have some doubt that the ICs view that this is a public network
>(don't get me wrong, it's nice to see the teapot is NOT made of
>chocolate after all!) is actually correct in law.
What no-one has yet explained (as a way of refuting my own view) is what the
ECS is that this alleged network might be delivering. Perhaps Renzo (in
Tim's blog) is hinting at this by failing to determine who the subscriber is
for this mythical ECS.
Let's look at this from another perspective. If the law had been drafted
differently (this is the EU law in the Directive, the UK regs are simply a
transposition) such that non-consensual radio broadcasts of textual adverts
were defined as spam, then what would be the position of adverts on Teletext
on TV - which fall just as much into the definition of "emails" as these
Bluetooth transmissions.
--
Roland Perry
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