According to a recent survey conducted by e-mail security services firm, MessageLabs, around half of the e-mails intercepted for the purposes of the survey were found to be spam. The company estimated that extrapolating from these results, a firm employing around 500 e-mail users would lose an average of 160 working hours per month, at a cost to the business of around HK$40,500.

Speaking to the South China Morning Post, information technology legislator, Sin Chung-kai announced that:

"I think it is the right time for the government to consult (with) the general public on legislation against spamming."

However, he acknowledged that due to existing legislative commitments, any new laws put forward by the Hong Kong authorities would not be completed before the end of the legislative term which ends in July 2004.

"Even though the government and the society may agree to enact a law on this subject, the earliest time [for passing such legislation] would be summer 2005," he told the SCMP.