Move is afoot to slam cell phone spam
In a step aimed at cutting back the growing number of spam messages sent to mobile phones, the Ministry of Information and Communication said yesterday that it will require companies to seek approval from customers before they send the commercial messages. There are currently more than 33 million subscriptions to mobile phones in Korea. More than 70 million spam messages are sent each day. The ministry said time is needed to revise related laws, so any change may not come into force until next year. After the revision, companies will have to ask mobile subscribers to log on to their Web sites and voluntarily request mobile messages before companies would be allowed to send commercial mail. Existing members on a Web site will automatically be considered as having agreed to receive the messages. Ministry officials said they expect the tightening of regulations will lead to a two-thirds reduction in the amount of spam messages sent to mobile phones. Even if subscribers actively agree to receive spam mail, companies will be barred from sending them from 9:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. to protect the private life of customers, the ministry said. by Kim Hyo-jin
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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