Survey Confirms It: Spam Sucks

[Guest LilBambi]

Survey Confirms It: Spam Sucks

To the surprise of no one, regular avalanches of spam are driving people away from using their e-mail and making their online time less enjoyable. A new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project documents how this persistent problem has taken its toll on the general public.

Summary: Spam is beginning to undermine the integrity of email and degrade life online.

The huge increase in email spam in recent years is beginning to take its toll on the online world. Some email users say they are using electronic mail less now because of spam. More people are reporting they trust the online environment less. Increasing numbers are saying that they fear they cannot retrieve the emails they need because of the flood of spam. They also worry that their important emails to others are not being read or received because the recipients’ filters might screen them out or the emails might get lost in the rising tide of junk filling people’s inboxes. In short, our new data from a national survey suggest that spam is beginning to undermine the integrity of email and to degrade the online experience. In large numbers, Internet users report that they trust email less and some even use email less because of spam. Why? Users worry that the growing volume of spam is getting in the way of their ability to reliably send and receive email. They complain that it uncontrollably clutters their inboxes and imposes uninvited, deceptive, and often disgustingly offensive messages. Here are the key figures: 25% of email users say the ever-increasing volume of spam has reduced their overall use of email; 60% of that group says spam has reduced their email use in a big way. 52% of email users say spam has made them less trusting of email in general.70% of email users say spam has made being online unpleasant or annoying.30% of email users are concerned that their filtering devices may block incoming email.23% of email users are concerned that their emails to others may be blocked by filtering devices.75% of email users are bothered that they can’t stop the flow of spam.80% of email users are bothered by deceptive or dishonest content of spam.76% of email users are bothered by offensive or obscene content of spam.Email users are evolving defense mechanisms against spam. Many email users believe they know how to behave in a spam-saturated environment. Most email users are judicious about guarding their email addresses in hopes of avoiding spam. A minority employ their own filters, either in work or personal accounts. Many more say they benefit from employer-installed filters on their work accounts. The most popular way of dealing with spam is to simply click “delete.” Despite their dismay, Internet users keep the issue of spam in perspective. For them, spam takes its place next to life’s other annoyances, like telemarketing calls. 73% of email users avoid giving out their email addresses; 69% avoid posting their email addresses on the Web.62% say their employers use filters to block spam from their work email accounts; half of them get no spam at all in those accounts.37% of those who have a personal email account apply their own filters to their email system; 21% of those with filters say less than a tenth of the email they receive is spam.86% of email users report that usually they “immediately click to delete” their incoming spam.59% of email users describe spam as “annoying, but not a big problem”; 27% of email users say spam is a “big problem” for them; 14% say it is no problem at all. Confusion and contradictory definitions compound the problem of spam.

And that's just one part of the Summary, and only a tiny part of the full article -- which is available PDF form as well as links below that to the individual sections in HTML format.

[ibe98765]

This is good!People annoyed by spam results in less overall email and computer usage, which = less ad money and people buying stuff for commercial companies which will lead to Federal action on the spam issue. Finally! Gives the Feds something else to do other than chase Microsoft...

[Guest LilBambi]

LOL! I doubt that ibe98765 but I am glad that this survey is out there. Maybe now someone will take action about it!As we approach the holidays, and the Christmas decorations aren't even up in stores yet, the spam is picking up majorly already! I hate to think what will happen as we get closer to the Holidays!

[littlebone]

People annoyed by spam results in less overall email and computer usage, which = less ad money and people buying stuff for commercial companies which will lead to Federal action on the spam issue.

This would work like mass transit. I once heard a transit expert saying that BART riders would always be about 8% of the East Bay commuters, give or take a few percentages. The give or take works thus: guy in car on Hway 24 sees BART train zoom by while he sits in traffic. So he figures: "I'll be smart and take the train". Enough folks do this so that the highway traffic thins to allow acceptable speeds. Same guy on BART looks out hi s window and sees cars zooming on the freeway. Thinks to himself: "Why am I wasting time waiting for trains and sitting next to strangers? I'll drive in."So, folks will give up e-mail. Spam levels will drop as advertising money dries up. Folks see e-mail doesn't have spam and they jump back in. Repeat as necessary.

[Guest LilBambi]

LOL! Good one littlebone!Of course, advertising dollars would be much better spent elsewhere than costing bandwidth to ISPs and hours of lost time and annoyance to users trying to sort out the valid from the invalid, or checking through tons of spam filtered mail for something that might have been accidentally snagged by it. It's like telemarketing on steroids. It gets worse by the day.

[Corrine]

Ok, so we all hate spam, including Charles Schumer (Senator from NY). The US Senate passed a bill yesterday (97-0) with the intent of stamping out spam. According to a report by the Gannett News Service in my local newspaper today, the bill "makes some spamming a crime with up to five-year jail terms, and bans companies from sending unwanted repeat e-mails." The bill includes a "do-not-email" list and also calls for:

3 years prison for hackers who use other people's computers to send spam.jail for spammers who hide their identify using a false domain name or protocol addy (sender whould have to list a postal address within the e-mail)an alert that unopened e-mail contains pornographic images (subject line?)

So what will this do except send the spammers offshore? Does anyone really think this will accomplish the intended results?

[Guest LilBambi]

I hear ya Corrine! Boy, do I hear ya!But it will cut down on a good percentage of it. And make it a more dangerous game for those that choose to participate in such deviousness as you mentioned:

3 years prison for hackers who use other people's computers to send spam.jail for spammers who hide their identify using a false domain name or protocol addy (sender whould have to list a postal address within the e-mail)an alert that unopened e-mail contains pornographic images (subject line?)

It's not much, but like they said in the movie "The Firm": It may not be sexy, but it has teeth.* * Referring to Mail Fraud as the means to bring down the bad apple lawyer firm in the movie. In the movie, they also said it was more than they had on Capone. LOL! Edited October 24, 2003 by LilBambi