Unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam): integrated policy and practice

The internet offers a cost-effective medium to build better relationships with customers than has been possible with traditional marketing media. Internet technologies, such as electronic mail, web sites and digital media, offer companies the ability to expand their customer reach, to target specific communities, and to communicate and interact with customers in a highly customised manner. In the last few years, electronic mail has emerged as an important marketing tool to build and maintain closer relationships both with customers and with prospects. E-mail marketing has become a popular choice for companies as it greatly reduces the costs associated with previously conventional methods such as direct mailing, cataloguing (i.e. sending product catalogues to potential customers) and telecommunication marketing. As small consumers obtain e-mail addresses, the efficiency of using e-mail as a marketing tool will grow. While e-mail may be a boon for advertisers, it is a problem for consumers, corporations and internet service providers since it is used for sending 'spam' (junk-mail). Unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE), which is commonly called spam, impinges on the privacy of individual internet users. It can also cost users in terms of the time spent reading and deleting the messages, as well as in a direct financial sense where users pay time-based connection fees. Spam, which most frequently takes the form of mass mailing advertisements, is a violation of internet etiquette (EEMA, 2002). This thesis shows that spam is an increasing problem for information society citizens. For the senders of spam, getting the message to millions of people is easy and cost-effective, but for the receivers the cost of receiving spam is financial, time-consuming, resource-consuming, possibly offensive or even illegal, and also dangerous for information systems. The problem is recognised by governments who have attempted legislative measures, but these have had little impact because of the combined difficulties of crossing territorial boundaries and of continuously evasive originating addresses. Software developers are attempting to use technology to tackle the problem, but spammers keep one step ahead, for example by adapting subject headings to avoid filters. Filters have difficulty differentiating between legitimate e-mail and unwanted e-mail, so that while we may reduce our junk we may also reduce our wanted messages. Putting filter control into the hands of individual users results in an unfair burden, in that there is a cost of time and expertise from the user. Where filter control is outsourced to expert third parties, solving the time and expertise problems, the cost becomes financial. Given the inadequacy of legislation, and the unreliability of technical applications to resolve the problem, there is an unfair burden on information society citizens. This research has resulted in the conclusion that cooperation between legislation and technology is the most effective way to handle and manage spam, and that therefore a defence in depth should be based on a combination of those two strategies. The thesis reviews and critiques attempts at legislation, self-regulation and technical solutions. It presents a case for an integrated and user-oriented approach, and provides recommendations

The Regulation of Unsolicited Commercial Communications (Spam): Is the opt-out mechanism effective?

A growing number of companies are using e-mail as an important component of their online marketing strategies. However, this brings about the problem of 'spam', i e, unsolicited junk mail. Spam is such a nuisance to consumers that it threatens the way we communicate. In order to limit spam, both technical and legal measures have been put in place. In countries where anti-spam legislation has been adopted, two mechanisms have been used to limit spam, namely either the opt-out or the opt-in mechanism. South Africa has adopted the opt-out mechanism in the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002. This paper considers the problems posed by spam and methods used to send spam to consumers and focuses on the effectiveness (or lack) of the opt-out mechanismMercantile La

Service provider responsibility for unsolicited commercial communication (spam).

The Internet introduced the concept of email – a means of communication that arguably provides the communication base for industry in the developed world. Advertisers have not been slow to take up the opportunities offered by the Internet and the World Wide Web – in many cases subsidising web-site presence. Advertising has its place, however, and many would argue that one of the less popular side effects of fast, easy and global communication has been the exploitation of this medium for sending ‘spam’ (or junk-mail). The focus of this paper is on the role of Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) as the principle gatekeepers between the Internet and email-users. Legislation recognises this role and addresses the problem of spam. Other approaches to tackle the problem come from self-regulation and software applications (filtering technologies). This paper outlines some preliminary research that assesses the potential of eliminating illegal Spam whilst at the same time allowing companies to use e-mail as a marketing tool, based on cooperation between the Law and the IT Sciences

Spam on the Internet: can it be eradicated or is it here to stay?

A discussion of the rise in unsolicited bulk e-mail, its effect on tertiary education, and some of the methods being used or developed to combat it. Includes an examination of block listing, protocol change, economic and computational solutions, e-mail aliasing, sender warranted e-mail, collaborative filtering, rule-based and statistical solutions, and legislation

Correlations and Omori law in Spamming

The most costly and annoying characteristic of the e-mail communication system is the large number of unsolicited commercial e-mails, known as spams, that are continuously received. Via the investigation of the statistical properties of the spam delivering intertimes, we show that spams delivered to a given recipient are time correlated: if the intertime between two consecutive spams is small (large), then the next spam will most probably arrive after a small (large) intertime. Spam temporal correlations are reproduced by a numerical model based on the random superposition of spam sequences, each one described by the Omori law. This and other experimental findings suggest that statistical approaches may be used to infer how spammers operate.Comment: Europhysics Letters, to appea

Spam

With the advent of the electronic mail system in the 1970s, a new opportunity for direct marketing using unsolicited electronic mail became apparent. In 1978, Gary Thuerk compiled a list of those on the Arpanet and then sent out a huge mailing publicising Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC—now Compaq) systems. The reaction from the Defense Communications Agency (DCA), who ran Arpanet, was very negative, and it was this negative reaction that ensured that it was a long time before unsolicited e-mail was used again (Templeton, 2003). As long as the U.S. government controlled a major part of the backbone, most forms of commercial activity were forbidden (Hayes, 2003). However, in 1993, the Internet Network Information Center was privatized, and with no central government controls, spam, as it is now called, came into wider use. The term spam was taken from the Monty Python Flying Circus (a UK comedy group) and their comedy skit that featured the ironic spam song sung in praise of spam (luncheon meat)—“spam, spam, spam, lovely spam”—and it came to mean mail that was unsolicited. Conversely, the term ham came to mean e-mail that was wanted. Brad Templeton, a UseNet pioneer and chair of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has traced the first usage of the term spam back to MUDs (Multi User Dungeons), or real-time multi-person shared environment, and the MUD community. These groups introduced the term spam to the early chat rooms (Internet Relay Chats). The first major UseNet (the world’s largest online conferencing system) spam sent in January 1994 and was a religious posting: “Global alert for all: Jesus is coming soon.” The term spam was more broadly popularised in April 1994, when two lawyers, Canter and Siegel from Arizona, posted a message that advertized their information and legal services for immigrants applying for the U.S. Green Card scheme. The message was posted to every newsgroup on UseNet, and after this incident, the term spam became synonymous with junk or unsolicited e-mail. Spam spread quickly among the UseNet groups who were easy targets for spammers simply because the e-mail addresses of members were widely available (Templeton, 2003)

Location analysis - possibilities of use in public administration

V článku jsou stručně popsána teoretická východiska lokační teorie a možnosti využití v oblasti veřejné správy jako je navrhování sítí a lokace různých zařízení v geografickém prostoru regionů.The paper under consideration describes key theoretical issues of continuous/discrete location theory and possibilities of applications in the area of public administration activities such as networks design and location of different facilities in geographical area of regions