The Ethics of Spam Prevention Essay -- Internet Computers Technology E

The Ethics of Spam Prevention The user base of the Internet and World Wide Web grows by millions of users each year. In recent years this has created an explosion in the number of Internet email accounts and addresses. Companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Netscape have made free email accounts available for the world to use. Many people have multiple email accounts on the web, in addition to those that they may have for business purposes. This increase in the number of users around the world surfing the Internet and using email has created a new problem and a very disturbing trend. Spam or unsolicited email messages, has become such a problem for people that it is common for users to spend a large portion of their time online just sifting through and deleting unwanted email. Spam has become an effective form of advertisement for any company or individual that uses the internet. Practically any type of product or service imaginable is being promoted through the use of spam. Many of these products that are being promoted are pornographic and can be offensive or harmful to people, especially to children. These spam messages however, are sent out indiscriminately to any email address that the spammer or source of the spam can find. Part of the reason that Internet users have more than one free web based email account is to avoid spam. People create new accounts for themselves because the spammers have found the old addresses and filled the inboxes with unwanted email. The progress of spamming technologies has created a whole new set of security products and features that companies and email providers must give users to make them competitive among email providers. Individual citizens and businesses have the ... ... enforce it. This type of a policy would certainly cause a drop in the billions of unsolicited messages sent each day, which are costing individuals time, money and productivity. Bibliography Google .com, 23 May 2004, http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%E2%80%9C@msn.com%E2%80%9D John Leyden, 10 Mar. 2004, The Register, 22 May 2004 , http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/10/big_us_isps_set_legal/ Spam Statistics 2004, 2004, Spam Filter Review, http://www.spamfilterreview.com/spam-statistics.html David E. Sorkin, 16 Dec. 2003, Spam Laws, 22 May 2004 , http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.html Paul Roberts, 19 May 2004, IDG News Service (PCWorld.com), 22 May 2004, http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116178,00.asp John Leyden, 27 Apr. 2004, The Register, 22 May 2004 , http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/27/spam_law_review/