FTC Chief Calls Spam Law Weak
The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday that he was skeptical a national anti-spam list would mean fewer unwanted e-mails.
The federal “Can Spam” legislation that went into effect Jan. 1 encourages the agency to create a “do-not-spam” list of e-mail addresses. It is similar to the FTC’s popular “do-not-call” registry that blocks unwanted phone calls from telemarketers.
People would sign up for the service and submit their e-mail addresses to the government. E-mail senders would be barred from e-mailing those addresses.
The FTC is due to submit a report to Congress by mid-June on establishing such a list.
Chairman Timothy Muris, repeating comments he made before the bill passed, said he did not think the FTC could come up with a way to enforce such a list.
“I’ve seen nothing to change my mind,” he said at a conference sponsored by the Consumer Federation of America.
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