This will largely only be of interest to UK service providers. The Online Safety Act 2023 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50/contents) will come into force on the 17th March. Ofcom threatens to impose heavy corporate penalties on service providers that do not comply. The act largely focuses on what it classes as user-to-user services, so this very forum may well be in scope for the act.
The key to not getting bogged down with an enormous bureaucratic burden will be to prove that your hosted VoIP service is "Out of Scope".
From what I have read, Services offering only one-to-one live aural communications are exempt. However I think there are some grey areas:
1. The exemption only applies if the service is not a recording, so how do we stand with announcements, IVRs and music on hold?
2. Conference calls are not one-to-one communications and technically anyone in the UK or the world could dial in to one.
Providing a conferencing facility could be one of the larger problem areas, the exemption clearly states it is only for communication between two users of the service by means of the service.
If your service is in scope then the burden is heavy, and you would need to make sure you have the correct wording in terms and conditions, have a number of documented procedures and also have a number of risk assessments in place. The act has already made a number of smaller UK organisations make the decision to close down their services.
Has anyone else done any research into this from a UK VoIP providers perspective? I would love to hear peoples views.
Kind regards,
Adrian.
The key to not getting bogged down with an enormous bureaucratic burden will be to prove that your hosted VoIP service is "Out of Scope".
From what I have read, Services offering only one-to-one live aural communications are exempt. However I think there are some grey areas:
1. The exemption only applies if the service is not a recording, so how do we stand with announcements, IVRs and music on hold?
2. Conference calls are not one-to-one communications and technically anyone in the UK or the world could dial in to one.
Providing a conferencing facility could be one of the larger problem areas, the exemption clearly states it is only for communication between two users of the service by means of the service.
If your service is in scope then the burden is heavy, and you would need to make sure you have the correct wording in terms and conditions, have a number of documented procedures and also have a number of risk assessments in place. The act has already made a number of smaller UK organisations make the decision to close down their services.
Has anyone else done any research into this from a UK VoIP providers perspective? I would love to hear peoples views.
Kind regards,
Adrian.
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