Scary Spam
Posted by Pierre Igot in: TechnologyJune 20th, 2003 • 1:17 am
I keep reading more and more scary stories about the impact of spam on legitimate (and essential) email communication. Here’s the latest:
“When spam filters go bad” by Laura Miller, Salon.com
To me, the scariest part of her column is this:
One rep did slip me a special customer service address where I sent a complaint about the inconvenience of the whole thing and suggested that Road Runner’s spam blockers might be a tad excessive. Someone wrote back: “Our system has spam filters in place to protect our network from being overloaded by bulk unsolicited e-mail. The end result benefits our subscribers, who can expect less downtime and higher service levels.” When I suggested that the willy-nilly blocking of perfectly legitimate e-mail necessary to one’s livelihood didn’t really seem like a “higher service level” to me, he replied that I shouldn’t be using my e-mail account for “commercial, or revenue generating purposes.” [my emphasis]
It sounds more and more as if, unless legislators come up with something drastic, spam might destroy email as a useful/reliable/convenient form of communication. Which leads us to this legitimate question:
“Can E-Mail Be Saved?” by Dave Crocker, Technology Review [free registration required]