Following criticism over making email ids of net neutrality supporters’ public, telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday asked users, who do not wish for their email id to be revealed, to specifically state so in their email.
TRAI had put up a consultation paper on its website on March 27, asking stakeholders to give their views on draft recommendations for over-the-top players such as Skype and WhatsApp on Net Neutrality in India. While the last day to summit comments was April 24, the last date for counter comments is May 8 (today). Industry experts feel the advisory may not prove to be of much help as it comes too close to the last day of receiving counter comments and most of the users may already have submitted their responses.
The regulator, in its statement, said the stakeholders had also requested that their responses be published on the TRAI website alongside other comments received, in line with past practice regarding such public consultations.
These comments were invited to a common official email id of the regulator and post April 24, all responses along with names and email ids were made public on its website. The regulator received a lot of flak for the move as it exposed these users to spammers.
“Since many of the emails had only email id as the header, for easy identification of the stakeholders’ comments, the comments were segregated date-wise along with their email ids and uploaded,” it clarified.
Acknowledging that a number of stakeholders have voiced concern that display of their email address may result in spamming, the regulator said, “Therefore, all stakeholders are hereby informed that during submission of their counter comments, if anyone desires that his/her email id should not be displayed, it may be specifically stated so in the email.”
It, however, added a proper name for identification and display in the counter comment must be included. “Such respondent should also include ‘Do not display my id’ in the subject of the email,” the regulator said.
Published - May 07, 2015 08:23 pm IST
