Internet users world-wide are unwittingly paying an estimated 10 billion euros a year in connection costs to receive junk e-mail, or spam, the European Commission revealed today.
A study done for the commission covering Europe and the US forms 'part of the commission's ongoing efforts to ensure that the development of the Internet and e-commerce does not undermine Europe's rules on Internet privacy and data protection,' said a statement.
'The exponential growth of junk e-mail in recent years is a fact of life,' said EU Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein. 'Current technology allows a single cyber-marketing company to send half a billion personalised ad mails via the world-wide web every day.'
He said consumer information gleaned from individual web transactions and consultations is being sold for large sums of money, and yet many individual subscribers are unaware of the scale and implications of these developments.
Bolkestein added that the commission aimed to encourage the continued development of Internet services without weakening the individual's right to privacy.
