Voicing Concerns Over Spit - Eversheds - Legal Practice

Voicing Concerns Over Spit
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Voice over IP - VoIP - Spam over Internet Telephony - SPIT - Telephone Preference Service - Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003

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09 January 2007

Eversheds

http://www.eversheds.com

Voicing Concerns Over Spit

As adoption of "Voice over IP" (VoIP) by businesses increases, VoIP presents new opportunities for spammers. VoIP could be used to disseminate "Spam over Internet Telephony" (SPIT) voicemail messages that clutter a recipient's inbox and potentially overload the recipient's network.

To guard against these risks, to the extent possible, users of VoIP should ensure they have appropriate technical measures to tackle viruses, hackers and other security concerns, in an attempt to exclude unwanted SPIT.

In the UK the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 restrict the sending of unsolicited electronic communications for direct marketing purposes, including SPIT and other forms of spam. This means that in many cases spam or indeed your own company's marketing messages must not be sent to individuals unless they have first given their positive "opt-in" consent, although this restriction will not apply to all individuals; for example employees of a company. The Regulations also prohibit electronic communications for direct marketing purposes where the sender's identity is concealed or where no address is given for requests to cease such communications.

Where VoIP is used to send pre-recorded messages via an automated calling system or to make unsolicited real-time calls for marketing purposes, further restrictions apply, in the same way as for traditional telephone communications. These include a requirement not to call numbers which are registered for the Telephone Preference Service.

If spammers deliberately flout the law then the effectiveness of any legal measures will depend on how far enforcement action can be taken and this will be more difficult where spammers are based in other jurisdictions.

It is important that businesses which already use VoIP or which intend to take advantage of VoIP in the future are aware of the relevant issues and up-to-date legal position.

Jonathan Price
Solicitor

Direct Dial: +44 (0) 845 497 1262
www.eversheds.com

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