Am I allowed to send unsolicited emails and/or messages to people? Am I allowed to cold-call people?

According to the New Guidance on Direct Marketing, under the Ordinance, “direct marketing” does not include unsolicited business electronic messages that are sent to email addresses, telephones or fax machines without addressing to specific persons by their names and person-to-person calls that are made to phone numbers generated randomly. This is usually referred to as cold-calling, which is a marketing approach by which the caller telephones a potential customer whom the caller has never had any previous dealings with. 

Hence, you are allowed to send direct mails to an address or its “occupant” without specifying any person by name and you are allowed to make a marketing call to a particular telephone number’s unidentified owner.

Nevertheless, you should provide an opt-out message like “We are not allowed to use your personal data in direct marketing unless we have your consent. If you do not wish to receive marketing calls from us, please let us know at any time and we will not call again.” If you fail to inform your customers of their opt-out right or any other information specified by sections 35C-35F of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486), they may make a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data.

For more legal provisions governing unsolicited emails and messages, you may look at the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance (Cap. 593). The Office of the Communications Authority has also issued some guidelines on sending unsolicited electronic messages. One is on the Ordinance, which can be accessed here, and the other is on the general information regarding the Ordinance, which can be accessed here.

Key takeaways

Bibliography:

  1. Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, ‘New Guidance on Direct Marketing’: https://www.pcpd.org.hk/english/publications/files/GN_DM_e.pdf