KUALA LUMPUR: There are no evidence to that show telecommunication companies (telcos) leaked mobile phone numbers of consumers to content providers, Parliament was told Monday.
However, the Government did not rule out the possibility of dealers or telco insiders leaking consumer information to content providers, said Deputy Information Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Joseph Salang.
"Many people assume that content providers who send business SMS contents to phone users obtained them from telcos. But investigations by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) proved it did not happen.
"There is a possibility the telco dealers or insiders leak such information required by the content providers. I believe many numbers were harvested randomly," he said when replying to a question by Datuk Ismail Abd Muttalib (BN-Maran) during the question and answer session.
Ismail had wanted to know how the ministry controlled and supervised the promotion of business through SMS and what was the punishment if there was proof of scams in such business.
Salang said the MCMC was always monitoring the activities of licence holders through the Communications and Multinmedia Act 1998, which provides for a fine of not more than RM100,000 or jail of not more than two years or both, if convicted.
He said through the monitoring of MCMC, 185 cases of pornographic, defamation and offensive SMS dissemination were investigated under Section 233 of the act, last year.