News :: Brussels, 13-14 December 2006 - Meeting on spam
International Spam fighters discuss strategies in Brussels
(18/12/2006) The European Commission hosted a two day meeting of international spam fighters in Brussels last week. Authorities and stakeholders from all over the world discussed how to win the fight against spam, as well as other on-line malpractices that threaten both citizens and businesses.
Industry estimates that in 2006 between 54-85% of all e-mail sent worldwide is spam. From being a nuisance, unsolicited email has become increasingly fraudulent and criminal. Criminals are luring users into revealing sensitive data and finances via so-called "phishing" emails. Privacy is at risk because spyware, spread by email or software, tracks and reports on users' behaviour. Viruses may compromise computers, turning them in spam servers (or 'botnets') without the users' knowledge.
These illegal practices undermine the confidence of users in the information society. Concern about these risks is seriously restricting the growth of legitimate online services. It represents an increasing cost on the global economy and raises issues of privacy protection and social harm.
Because fighting these issues is a cross border problem, authorities and industry partners have grouped together internationally in initiatives such as the London Action Plan (LAP) and the European Contact Network of Spam Enforcement Authorities (CNSA). This meeting was the second joint workshop of these two initiatives which comprise both public authorities and industry organisations.
On 15 November this year the Commission adopted a Communication 'On Fighting spam, spyware and malicious software' that calls upon Member States to step up their enforcement efforts. The Commission is dedicated to facilitate these efforts by, among other things, hosting meetings such as this one.
Other Commission initiatives include proposed new legislative proposals on privacy and security in 2007, cooperating with non EU countries and ongoing research and development activities under the Commission's 7th Framework Program.