| Information note to the press |
International Telecommunication Union
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MEDIA ADVISORY — MEDIA ADVISORY — MEDIA
ADVISORY
ITU to Hold Meeting on Countering Spam
Unsolicited Commercial E-mail Threatens Information
Society Potential
Geneva, 1 June 2004 — The International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) is organizing a meeting on countering SPAM from
7-9 July 2004, in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting will be held at the
International Conference Centre of Geneva (CICG) in the framework of the
preparatory process for Phase 2 of the World Summit on the Information Society.
Discussion about unsolicited commercial communications, or Spam, will be
centred around 5 key areas:
Scope of the problem
Technical solutions
Consumer and small business education and awareness
Legislation and enforcement
International cooperation
Spam has grown into one of the major plagues affecting the digital world,
threatening to clog e-mail, mobile and instant messaging services with Spammers
sending hundreds of millions of messages per day. It ranges from commercial
advertising and offensive material to that which supports fraudulent and
criminal activities with the result being that service providers, businesses and
end-users are facing significant financial costs. The annual loss in
productivity due to Spam is estimated to exceed USD 10 billion in Europe and the
United States alone.
The Geneva phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
identified Spam as a potential threat to the full utilization of digital
services and recognized it as "a significant and growing problem for users,
networks and the Internet as a whole." In order to build confidence and security
in the use of ICTs, there is a need to "take appropriate action at national and
international levels."
Forum to develop solutions to Spam
The ITU-WSIS Thematic Meeting on Countering Spam will serve as a forum for
stakeholders, including government policy-makers and
regulators, consumer groups, Internet service providers, software companies,
academics and civil society organizations. They will exchange experiences
and share their views on technical, legal and other solutions to countering
Spam, as well as discuss initiatives at the national and international level to
deal with the problem.
| What: |
ITU WSIS Thematic Meeting
on Countering SPAM |
| When: |
7-9 July 2004 |
| Where: |
International Conference
Centre of Geneva (CICG) |
| Who: |
Government policy-makers and
regulators, Consumer groups, Internet service providers, Software
companies, Academics and Civil Society organizations |
About ITU
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