EU tightens grip on SMS spam

The same European Parliament committee which turned down proposals to restrict the use of cookies has initially approved restrictions on SMS spam.

The European parliamentary committee's second ruling on the Data Protection Directive last week may require companies operating within the European Union to obtain the consent of mobile phone users before sending commercial messages.

The landmark ruling will only become law if it is approved by the European Parliament in May and ratified by member states.

But the move has angered mobile phone companies, which claim that they are being singled out because they are the heaviest users of commercial SMS.

The committee also earned the wrath of the European Internet Service Provider (ISP) Association after it confirmed its position on leaving the right to decide whether internet users need to give permission before being sent email spam in the hands of individual member states.

Currently there are no restrictions on the use of SMS for promotional marketing.

Although this may change if the legislation goes through, the ISP industry association warned that there are no restrictions in place to stop spam emails being sent to mobile phones instead.

One decision on which the committee did appear to make the right move was an agreement that user data may not be stored by service providers for longer than is necessary for billing purposes.

Data privacy rules may only be lifted in exceptional circumstances, such as a criminal investigation.