Spam law passed
Spam law passed
August 14, 2007
Parliament has passed a new law to fight spam. The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007 aims to prevent New Zealand becoming a haven for spammers by prohibiting unsolicited commercial electronic messages and requiring senders of commercial electronic messages to include accurate sender information and a functional unsubscribe facility.
Information Technology Minister David Cunliffe said the act prohibits people from using address-harvesting software or a harvested-address list in connection with the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages.
It applies to all emails, texts and instant messages that market or promote goods, services, and other schemes of a commercial or dishonest nature.
Mr Cunliffe says the law will take effect in late August, to give organisations a reasonable period of time to ensure their email practices and databases comply with the act. The law is being administered by the Department of Internal Affairs.
