The Harms of Spam

Problems Due to Spam

• 90% find spam very or somewhat annoying (Source: Harris Poll Dec. 2003)
• 60% of January 2004 email was spam (Source: Brightmail Jan. 2004)
• Spam costs companies $20 billion worldwide, and costs are growing 100% per year (Source: Basex Dec. 2003)

What Makes Email Spam?

• “Email users are not entirely clear on just what is spam” (Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, Oct. 2003)
• Adjectives describing spam: Automated, Bulk, Mass, High-volume, Untargeted, Unsolicited, Commercial, Objectionable, Unwanted, Irrelevant
• Many recipients like relevant email, even if unsolicited
  • “7% of email users report that they have ordered a product or service that was offered in an unsolicited email” (Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, Oct. 2003)
• But irrelevant email is “spam”
• How can we distinguish the two?
• The answer: only recipients can determine if email is “spam” to them
  • Every statistic about spam is questionable
  • Any effort to regulate spam—legislative or technological—will block wanted emails and miss unwanted emails

What Makes Spam Special?

• Recipients are less tolerant of irrelevant emails than irrelevant ads in other media
  • Every medium provides some recipients with irrelevant ads
  • Every medium requires recipients to sort content from ads and wanted ads from unwanted ads
  • Other media deliver irrelevant ads to our home
• We are still trying to understand why spam earns special wrath
  • Until we do, laws protecting recipients from spam may not solve the problem

The Real Harms of Spam

• False/deceptive emails
• Emails infringing third party trademarks
• Emails containing obscene/child pornographic content
• Emails a service provider doesn’t want to carry
  • Especially when the provider is not getting paid to carry them
• Service providers targeted by forged routing information