Spam threatens user trust online. It imposes costs on firms and ISPs, spreads viruses, and implicates consumer protection and data privacy laws. Although a variety of anti-spam initiatives are underway in OECD countries, the rising volume of spam suggests that no single approach can succeed and that closer international co-ordination is needed.

The rapid proliferation of spam is a source of considerable concern for governments, businesses and individuals because it undermines user trust online, reduces productivity in enterprises and increases costs for Internet service providers.

Spam is a global problem requiring solutions beyond the national or regional boundaries. For this reason the OECD has embarked on work on spam with the aim of bringing together all actors and fostering international co-operation in this area.

Within the OECD, the Committee on Consumer Policy and the Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy’s (ICCP) Working Party on Information Security and Privacy and Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Services Policy have joined efforts to cover the issues as broadly as possible. Anti-spam Toolkit