According to Out-law.com, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has said that direct marketing messages sent by Bluetooth are outside its remit. From the Out-law.com report, the reason appears to be a technical one, based upon the wording of the Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.
The Regulations apply to certain kinds of "communications" (e.g. see our guide to marketing by email). "Communications" is defined by the Regulations as meaning:
"any information exchanged or conveyed between a finite number of parties by means of a public electronic communications service..." (Follow the link to the definition of public electronic communications service)
As a matter of interpretation, the ICO's view cannot be faulted. Bluetooth is a device-to-device method of direct communication, just like old-fashioned walkie talkies. In contrast, email, fax, and telephone are all delivered via wider communications networks which certainly fall within the public electronic communications services.
That the ICO is technically correct isn't going to satisfy those who receive annoying marketing messages via their mobile phones or other Bluetooth-equipped devices. Practically, they could just switch-off Bluetooth except when actively needed, but as more and more devices come with Bluetooth functionality included, this isn't exactly a long term solution.
If Bluetooth marketing really is a nuisance, the ICO will have to lobby for legislation addressing its use. From the ICO's perspective, Bluetooth spam is a problem that it really could solve. Unlike direct marketing emails, which is difficult to tackle because most spam emails are sent from jurisdictions with no email marketing laws, the sender of a Bluetooth communication must be in close proximity to the recipient. This means that catching senders of Bluetooth spam could be relatively easy, in the same way that the police recently (and controversially) caught someone making unauthorised use of a private wifi network.
Comments