Friday, November 21, 2003

Congress Poised for Vote on Anti-Spam Bill

NYtimes reports that House and Senate negotiators reached agreement today on a law to crack down on the floods of unsolicited e-mail messages that clog the nation's cybermail boxes.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/politics/21CND-SPAM.html?hp

Echoes of the spam case / Repercusiones 2

The Spam case of last week was published in the BNA Commerce List of Michael GEist, the TERRA/Lycos site, Alfa Redi, Wired [in Spanish] and Diario Clarin.-

Spam in Brazil

BRAZIL LAUNCHES SELF-REGULATION ANTI-SPAM CAMPAIGN
A group of Brazilian Internet and direct-advertising companies has launched an anti-spam crusade they claim is unprecedented in scope anywhere in the world. It is based on a strict code of ethics for advertisers and the principle
that the industry can regulate itself. The code obliges email advertisers to tell consumers who they are, to observe
truth-in-advertising norms and to let recipients opt out of future mailings.

URL: http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7932168%5E15342%5E%5Enbv%5E15306-15319,00.html

Spam in Argentina

Diario Clarin, the most important newspaper in the country, runs a story today about our spam case.

See http://www.clarin.com/diario/hoy/s-04501.htmLA

PROTECCION DE LOS DATOS PERSONALES
Primer caso judicial en el país contra el envío de correo basura por Internet.-
por Maria Copani
Por primera vez en la Argentina un juez se expide contra el envío de correo electrónico no solicitado, el llamado "correo basura" o "spam".

En una medida sin precedentes en el país, el juez Roberto Torti, a cargo del Juzgado Civil y Comercial Federal Nø 3, dictó una medida cautelar contra un emisor de correo electrónico no solicitado, quien deberá abstenerse de seguir enviando e-mails a los demandantes, al menos mientras dure el litigio.

La causa fue iniciada en febrero por Gustavo Daniel Tanús y Pablo Andrés Palazzi, quienes dijeron a Clarín que decidieron recurrir a la Justicia luego de haber solicitado reiteradamente ser excluidos de las listas de envío del "spammer".

"No hemos demandado a alguien que vende productos por correo electrónico, sino a alguien que vende bases de datos con e-mails de millones de usuarios de Internet", dijo Pablo Palazzi.

Ejerciendo un derecho Palazzi y Tanús, abogados especialistas en derecho informático y privacidad (que actuaron en calidad de damnificados), explicaron que en esta causa se ampararon en la Ley de Protección de Datos Personales.

No habiendo ley contra el spam —explicaron—, la Ley de Protección de Datos Personales (o Hábeas Data) regula —entre otras cuestiones— los archivos o bancos de datos con fines de publicidad y les da dos derechos a las personas que están registradas en esos bancos de datos:

1) Derecho a acceder sin cargo a la información que tengan sobre uno.

2) El titular podrá solicitar el retiro o bloqueo de su nombre de la base de datos.

"Es importante que una autoridad reconozca que el spam es una cosa seria y que advierta a los que se dedican a estas prácticas que no pueden ampararse en la falta de una ley específica", dijo Gustavo Tanús.

Esta medida cautelar obliga al demandado no sólo a abstenerse de enviar más e-mails a los dos demandantes, sino también a no ceder o transferir a terceros sus direcciones de correo electrónico u otros datos personales vinculados a ellos.

"Esta resolución reconoce que la dirección electrónica de una persona es un dato personal que merece protección", resaltó Tanús.

La base de datos que el demandado ha promocionado para la venta contiene, al parecer y según su propio creador, direcciones de e-mail de todo el mundo, categorizadas por países, ciudades, localidades, profesiones y hobbies. Además ofrece —comentó Tanús— "todo el software necesario para enviar e-mails ocultando la procedencia".

Luego de esta medida cautelar, tomada a nueve meses de iniciada la causa, el proceso sigue en marcha. Se trata del primer paso legal en Argentina contra el "spam", ese grave "efecto colateral" del correo electrónico.

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Data Protection Law and Spam

First Spam case in Argentina.-
by Pablo Palazzi


On November 11, 2003 a federal judge from the City of Buenos Aires issued the first injunction in a spam case. Plaintiffs Gustavo Daniel Tanus and Pablo Andres Palazzi, two national experts in data protection law, sued a well known spammer under the new data protection law of Argentina.

In their complaint the two plaintiffs argued that section 27 of the 2000 Argentine Data Protection Law gives them a right to opt out, which the spammer did not comply with when they asked to be removed from the database (They demanded that their email be deleted from the database).

The case spent almost the whole year in a discussion of jurisdiction between a federal judge and a commercial judge in Buenos Aires. Finally the federal court of appeals decided that the federal judge has jurisdiction to hear the case (see past report in this blog) due to the fact that the Internet was used to send the spam.

The judge decided that during this process the defendant should refrain from sending plaintifs additoinal e-mails. The injunction also forbids the transfer of the plaintiffs emails to third parties. His decision was based on the data protection law (section 1, 2, 5, 11 and 27).

Spam is starting to be regulated in Latin America. Recently, bills were introduced in Congress in Brazil, Argentina [1] [2] and Chile. Brazil has also an open relays black list project (see here) and there are web sites and non for profit movement in Argentina (see Rompecadenas, Spambusters and Anti Spam) and Brazil (see http://www.antispam.org.br/ and [2]). There are also judicial rulings against spammers in Colombia and Brazil.

The decision is welcomed because spam was previously uncontrolled in Argentina (see 1, 2, 3, 4). Now that has changed.-

Thursday, November 06, 2003

eHealth in Latin America and the Caribbean: Development and Policy Issues

eHealth in Latin America and the Caribbean: Development and Policy Issues

by Roberto J Rodrigues - Ahmad Risk

This paper reviews trends and issues in health and in the information and communication technologies (ICT) market as they relate to the deployment of eHealth solutions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Heretofore designed for industrialized countries and large organizations, eHealth solutions are being proposed as an answer to a variety of health-system management problems and health care demands faced by all health organizations including those in developing societies. Particularly, eHealth is seen as especially useful in the operational support of the new health care models being implemented in many countries. The authors examine those developments vis-à-vis the characteristics of the Latin American and the Caribbean health-sector organizational preparedness and technological infrastructure, and propose policy and organizational actions to foster the development of eHealth solutions in the region.