Do you have an email address? Unless you are incredibly careful or one of GodÕs chosen few that are incapable of having anything bad happen to them, that email address has at some point been submerged in a flood of junk email. Waves of emails with subject lines like: ÒROCK HARD ABS IN JUST FOR DAYS!!!Ó, ÒFW: Hi are you doing?Ó, ÒA story about Micro$oft and tomatosÓ and ÒInfromation IÕll bet you didnt knowÉÉÓ routinely spill into most of our email boxes on a daily basis ø reaffirming a belief for some that the majority of those with email are either stupid twelve year-olds or cannot spell (or a little bit of both).
This week in the Tech Section of World Tribune.com, IÕm going to tackle some of the issues surrounding all the junk we get in our email inboxes. From spam, viruses, hoaxes, rumors and the other junk in your email ø World Tribune.comÕs Tech section will help you sort through it all.
Much of the junk email is comparable to the mass-market mailings most Americans get in their post office boxes on a daily basis. This electronic junk email, referred to as Òspam,Ó has become a problem for both users and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Much of it is annoying, a lot of it is looks like the goods it advertises are illegal but almost none of it arrives in your inbox for no reason. In the past couple of years, the Internet users who hate to get spam have tried to get rid of it by going to their ISPs and complaining. Problems arise when users find that their ISPs have been selling the email addresses to the mass-marketing agencies in an effort to stay profitable. Large ISPs like Earthlink and AOL all have policies against this, but many of their users are still inundated with spam.
The real problem with spam is figuring out whatÕs annoying and whatÕs part of a legitimate marketing strategy. Obviously, getting an email every day about great deals on stainless steel kitchen utensils is annoying but thereÕs probably a legitimate reason youÕre getting it. Maybe you are buying a house or remodeling your kitchen and found info about the subject at a home improvement web site? Filling out a survey or even signing up on the site to access premium content will often get you added to the list. ItÕs annoying, but bear in mind that the reason why youÕre getting these Òunsolicited emailsÓ is because you signed up for it.
Of course, the deceptive ads, the full-blown illegal stuff like DVD-copying software and the truly unsolicited emails you canÕt get rid of are nothing but spam. In the US, there are some governmental initiatives promising to shield Americans from the torrential downpour of this garbage. During the last week of January 2002, the director of the Federal Trade CommissionÕs Bureau of Consumer Protection announced at the 2nd Annual Privacy & Data Security Summit in Washington, DC that the FTC would begin a new campaign to crack down on spam. The so-called consumer and electronic privacy activists were quick to cheer the idea of a Federal-level big government solution. Hey, forget that states like California have already enacted anti-spam protections that have been effective, because to the consumer advocates itÕs a known fact that more Federal regulations are always better for consumers! Look at all the competition the Telco Act of 1996 opened up in the broadband industry for the benefit of consumersÉ
I already hear your questions: Do I want consumers to be protected from the annoyances of spam? You bet I do. Do I think that unsolicited spam should be illegal? Of course I do. Do I know that there is a better way of accomplishing these actions rather than adding a couple of hundred more pages into the Federal Registry? Yes, and the easiest way of doing this is free and simple: GET A FREE EMAIL ADDRESS AND USE IT.
Think of having two email addresses as having a box at the Post Office and a mailbox in front of your home. I donÕt know of any ISPs that donÕt give users an email account for use with Outlook Express or whatever application you use to check your email. Give the email address set up for your ISP to your friends and family. When you are on the Internet, go to one of the free email web pages like Hotmail or Yahoo and sign up for an account. Use this email for ANY business you do on the web. If you want to fill out surveys, buy a book, get a car loan, receive a newsletter and are asked to give your email address ø the free email account is what you should use. By doing this, you keep the marketing companies from buying any email address other than your free email account and have effectively kept spam from going into your Outlook Express inbox (This isnÕt going to help those people that are AOL users hip-deep in the flood waters, but will be invaluable for new Internet users or those about to switch to a new ISP).
In the next column IÕll go over how to combat evil email viruses.
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