Forum reply on The Straits Times Interactive Online, 7 Jun 2014
 
WE REFER to Mr Alan Lee Kiat-Leng's letter ("Target junk mail in letterboxes"; May 29).

The Personal Data Protection Commission would like to clarify that as advertising mailers in bills are addressed to individuals using their personal data, the commission has chosen to provide clarifications for this scenario in our advisory guidelines for the telecommunications sector.

These guidelines aim to help organisations to better prepare for the Personal Data Protection Act 2012.

When the Act comes fully into effect next month, organisations require the consent of individuals for the collection, use and disclosure of their personal data.

If an organisation would like to use an individual's personal data for marketing purposes, his consent will need to be obtained regardless of the means through which such marketing messages are sent, including advertising inserts in bills.

This similarly applies to the sending of telemarketing messages. However, this does not apply to the sending of marketing material that does not involve the use of personal data. An example would be junk mail that is not addressed to any specific individual.

Under the Act, organisations may continue to use personal data collected before July 2 for the purposes for which the personal data was collected, without obtaining fresh consent, unless the individual has asked the organisation to stop doing so.

For example, an organisation that has been including advertising inserts in bills to its customers via post can continue to do so after July 2 until the customer indicates that he does not wish to receive them any more.

Individuals can notify an organisation of their wish to stop receiving all marketing messages, after which the organisation should cease sending such messages, whether by post, voice call, SMS, e-mail or fax, to them. We hope the above addresses Mr Lee's concerns.

Evelyn Goh (Ms)
Director, Communications, Planning & Policy
Personal Data Protection Commission