:: netwoman's blog ::

Spam

I can attest to how annoying spam is. I have tried Spam filters, and yes - they filter out unwanted emails - BUT - they also filter out some of my list servs (like Women's Studies lists and AoIR, plus personal emails from people with their own domain names). There is something wrong with the Spam filters the way they are are now.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has recently released two new Data
Memos:
"The CAN-SPAM Act Has Not Helped Most Email Users So Far: Disillusionment is growing as 29% of email users say they are using email less because of spam"
and
"Use of the Internet in places other than home or work: A PIP Data Memo"

The CAN-SPAM Act has not helped most email users so far: WASHINGTON -- The distress of Internet users at spam has increased in recent months and growing numbers of Internet users are becoming disillusioned with email, despite the first national anti-spam legislation which went into effect on January 1.

A new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project between February 3 and March 1, 2004 shows the following: 29% of email users say they have reduced their overall use of email because of spam. That figure is an increase from last June, when we found that 25% of emailers were reporting a reduction in their email use. 63% of email users said that the influx of spam made them less trusting of email in general. That figure is higher than the 52% of email users who reported declining trust in email in June. 77% of emailers said the flood of spam made the act of being online unpleasant and annoying. That is an increase from the 70% of those who said in June that spam was making online experiences unpleasant and annoying. 42% of email users said they were aware that Congress and the Administration had approved anti-spam legislation and that it had gone into effect at the beginning of the year.

In all, 86% of email users reported some level of distress with spam.

"The vast majority of email users are not getting much help yet from the nation's first major anti-spam legislation," said Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet Project. "The law was designed to create some rules-of-the road that would make clear what was legal and what was illegal in bulk email campaigns. In the weeks since the CAN-SPAM Act went into effect on January 1, email users said they are seeing no relief and, in some cases, things are getting worse."

Among other things, the survey found that 71% of those with email accounts report that they have received pornographic spam. Still, the one area where the CAN-SPAM Act seemed to be having a somewhat clearer effect involved porn. Of those who had gotten pornography in the past, 25% say they are getting less porn spam now. That compares to 16% who say they are getting more and 56% who say they notice no change. The CAN-SPAM Act explicitly states that pornographic spam must be identified by the subject line as containing adult content in the message.

The full Spam memo is available here.

Nearly a quarter of online Americans use the Internet at places besides home or work

As use of the Internet becomes more appealing and more essential to Americans, a growing number are using multiple locations to go online. And significant numbers are moving beyond the tradition places of access - home and work. The Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that 23% of adult U.S. Internet users have gone online from a place other than home or work. That is close to 30 million people.

In that group of online Americans, 27% have used the Internet at school, 26% have used it at friends' or neighbors' homes, and 26% have used it at libraries.

On any given day more than 4 million Americans are accessing the Internet from some place other than home or work.

Those who use the Internet in some place other than home or work fall into two main camps. The first camp consists of the online Americans who seem to go online wherever they are. These users often have access at home and at work and they are anxious to have access from other places as well. Many of them are young - under the age of 30 - and avid Internet users. On a typical day, more than half the people accessing the Internet from a "third place" are between ages 18-24. Nearly half of students (48%) have accessed the Internet from a "third place." They are the anywhere, anytime users of the Internet.

In the second camp are Internet users who are relatively poor and do not have high levels of education. Many have access at work, some have access at home, and a portion of them depend on a place other than home or work for their Internet access. Those who depend on "third places" make up only 3% of the entire U.S. Internet population, but they are disproportionately likely to live in households earning less than $30,000, to live in rural areas, and to be newcomers to the online world. They are fairly infrequent users of the Internet who often use libraries and friends' homes as their access points.

Some 54% of Internet users say they go online from more than one place.

These findings suggest that use of the Internet has spread well beyond home and work. The importance of the Internet in the lives of professionals who travel often, students, young adults, and people with a lot of online experience has grown to the point that for many it is a technology that moves with them wherever they go and which they access whenever they feel the need. On any given day, 27% of those who use the Internet go online in at least two places.

At the same time, a portion of Internet users depend completely on these other places because these locales are the exclusive providers of their online connection. They are not avid users of the Net, but they have entered the online world at the level that is available to them.

The full "Other Places" memo is available here.

posted by Netwoman @ 8:45 PM