Saudi Arabia’s new Anti-Spam Regulations

Saudi Arabia’s new Anti-Spam Regulations

Recently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia updated its regulations with regards to the electronic messages and marketing communications which are unsolicited. The CITC – Communications and Information Technology Commission who is responsible for the regulations for the telecom sectors in the Kingdom, it conferred with the responsibility of issuing rules for ensuring compliance with the Laws of telecoms under the Council of Ministers resolution No. 74. There has been a recent trend globally, that the regional as well as international bodies are recognising the issues and concerns of SPAM and are taking effective and considerable steps to deal with the same.

The basic features and aims of the policy regulations is

1. Reduction in transmission of SPAM messages
2. Ensuring that the receivers have actively consented to the receiving of the texts being sent
3. Ensuring legitimate conversations between the sender and the receiver
4. Ensuring that the internet and the related support services are not counter to the moral and communal values of the Kingdom

The law prohibits the misuse of the telecom services for causing nuisance and disturbances. Article 58 stats that the service providers must protect the personal and private information of the users. Considering these changes, the commission issued the regulations for addressing the spamming or messages as well as other categories.

The commission mandates the services providers to include clear terms and conditions which if not adhered to, will lead to possible termination and cancellation of the services. In this case, the senders are prohibited from texting SPAM messages and from sending flash texts which may appear on the screen without any intimation.

Further going, the commission has specifically mentioned the type B class licenses for SMSs or Bulk SMS. This category applies to all the service providers who intend to send short messages, etc.

The framework is developed on the following consultancy and design principles:

1. Assessment of the jurisdictions tackling the anti-spamming menace
2. Reviewing the current legislation and laws in Saudi Arabia
3. Review which is consultative and iterative with critical focus on the commissions subject matter and government organisations and the anti-spam policy framework and the committee.