Email system provision is unregulated in the UK.

vofs007

I was shocked to discover that in the UK email system provision is unregulated. This means that ISP's and other email suppliers have carte blanche to do anything with your emails and if things go wrong you have no one you can complain to. Time is running out for an e-petition that is trying to change this ridiculous situation.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/48917

RobTang

The problem is any regulation is pretty much un-enforceable, maybe they could get the ISP but their not going to be able to regulate gmail, outlook, yahoo etc.


Plus pretty much anyone can setup their own email servers with very little cost, these you really really cant regulate but it does enable you to run your own if your really worried about what big companies are doing to your emails.

debitcardmayhem

vofs007 wrote: »

I was shocked to discover that in the UK email system provision is unregulated. This means that ISP's and other email suppliers have carte blanche to do anything with your emails and if things go wrong you have no one you can complain to. Time is running out for an e-petition that is trying to change this ridiculous situation. Search the Governments e-petition website for more information.

Dear me , let me complain to the spammers,or worse, that purport to be from HMRC , Barclays,LLoyds, UPS, Paypal, eBay and Fax providers et al. Some genuine sites e.g. Adobe FT.com and many others have had their mailing lists harvested / hacked into and guess what , your eMail address is out there for these cretins to try to fool you into clicking on their spoofed invoices/pdfs/web sites. Sorry to rain on your parade but petitions are not the answer, nor are the government of the day, you/we are... now move along and petition for equal rights for white heterosexual males of the age of 61years and 286 days old. Oh and you could always encrypt your emails if they are sensitive

cookie365

Email is by definition open. Regulation would be pointless - any effective regulation will basically stop emailing from working.

If you're worried about privacy, use encryption:

http://lifehacker.com/180878/how-to-encrypt-your-email

Assuming that's not practicable (for most people, that's the case) then assume that sending an email is like writing stuff on a postcard (that can be stored and searched electronically).

paddyrg

Do you know what the S in SMTP stands for? Simple. Simple in that it doesn't require complex handshakes or domain authentication or the like.

Arguably it was never designed to do the job it has ended up doing, but as-is, there's no workable way to stop spam coming from all corners of the world. Regulating the UK will change nothing on the spam front and only make things worse on the openness front.

Uxb

Look, it is really simple:
If you don't give a toss then you use the free services of gmail, hotmail, etc.
They are free and you pay for this is other ways, by having gmail scan your emails, by having intermittent service, by adverts, by risk of data loss etc etc.

If you want really secure, business grade, 24/7/365 email with encryption and authentication built in and umpteen backups then you go and pay for it from a business grade email supplier.
You know running all this does cost money strange to report!

Email is not regulated as there are so many alternative suppliers and choices a customer can make. Regulation is for where an 'essential' service is only supplied by a few companies.
ISP's regard email as a free add-on they supply.

I've always said on forums everywhere that I can see ISP's ditching their email facilities like they have ditched their free webspace facilities mostly. It must be a real load of aggro running email servers for them, incoming spam catching, virus checking, compromised customer accounts pumping out spam.... and the rest.
I would not be surprised if they become just internet connectivity enablers. They might then sell their email side to say a business grade supplier with their customers given the option to either pay additional for continuing to use it or be cut off have to use the free ones if they don't care.

InsideInsurance

vofs007 wrote: »

I was shocked to discover that in the UK email system provision is unregulated.

If the email provider is UK based, both company and server, then of cause they are regulated with the normal generic statutory protections you have with Data Protection Act etc. There isnt any email provider specific regulations or certifications that they require.

As always, you need to read the terms and conditions you agree to as you can of cause sign away much of your rights if you agree to do so.


What do you actually want to change? Block any US based providers offering services here because your statutory protection will be lower?

You can already chose the level of "protection" you have by the selection of the service you go for from the extreme of secure/encrypted services that you pay business rates for to the free non-uk service that is effectively paid for by your waiving rights to privacy.

vofs007

I am afraid there is a misunderstanding about what the problem is.
The problem is not about regulating emails. It is about the regulating of providers of email systems. For most users emails are an essential means of communicating for carrying out normal living activities. At the moment there is no statutory protection for users if they are deprived of their email service by a provider or the provider fails to provide a satisfactory service.
The requirement is that regulation needs to be put in place so that if users sign up to a regulated email system supplier they have access to Ofcom supported dispute resolution process. At the moment this does not exist.
Such regulation is possible and can implemented.

vofs007

Uxb wrote: »

Look, it is really simple:
If you don't give a toss then you use the free services of gmail, hotmail, etc.
They are free and you pay for this is other ways, by having gmail scan your emails, by having intermittent service, by adverts, by risk of data loss etc etc.

If you want really secure, business grade, 24/7/365 email with encryption and authentication built in and umpteen backups then you go and pay for it from a business grade email supplier.
You know running all this does cost money strange to report!

Email is not regulated as there are so many alternative suppliers and choices a customer can make. Regulation is for where an 'essential' service is only supplied by a few companies.
ISP's regard email as a free add-on they supply.

I've always said on forums everywhere that I can see ISP's ditching their email facilities like they have ditched their free webspace facilities mostly. It must be a real load of aggro running email servers for them, incoming spam catching, virus checking, compromised customer accounts pumping out spam.... and the rest.
I would not be surprised if they become just internet connectivity enablers. They might then sell their email side to say a business grade supplier with their customers given the option to either pay additional for continuing to use it or be cut off have to use the free ones if they don't care.

I agree with most of what you say and you describe the chaotic state of email system provision in the UK.

Where I disagree is
"
Email is not regulated as there are so many alternative suppliers and choices a customer can make. Regulation is for where an 'essential' service is only supplied by a few companies."

The number of suppliers is a reason for regulation not against it.

Uxb

But nor is there any statutory protection if your broadband fails.
BT and your ISP only offer their best efforts to repair on domestic lines and with no time frame on the work.
They are quite within their rights on say long lines to shrug and declare it's too difficult to repair/improve to give you a broadband service - and that is it. You are left with a voice service only.

If you want guaranteed broadband repair times and a service level agreement (SLA's) you go off and buy a commercial/business/bespoke/leased line broadband package from BT or the specialist commercial only ISP's........and my will it cost ya'.

If you want UK wide regulated services with guarantees and SLA's yes it can be implemented - but someone has to pay.
Given with email anyway, the number who seem quite happy with Gmail scanning everything they write so long as its "free" I think you are on a loosing crusade.

Geodark

vofs007 wrote: »

I am afraid there is a misunderstanding about what the problem is.
The problem is not about regulating emails. It is about the regulating of providers of email systems. For most users emails are an essential means of communicating for carrying out normal living activities. At the moment there is no statutory protection for users if they are deprived of their email service by a provider or the provider fails to provide a satisfactory service.
The requirement is that regulation needs to be put in place so that if users sign up to a regulated email system supplier they can expect a defined level of service. At the moment this does not exist.
Such regulation is possible and can implemented.

But how can an email provider guarantee a service that could relay on so many other factors? they may say that their servers will be up and running 100% of the time, but that doesnt mean that they are reachable. Do you know how DNS, IP etc work? I could think of many examples of how the email company could be running perfectly but you wouldnt be able to use your service - and none of them down to a problem with the email provider