The word is out on spam. We value email and unsolicited bulk email (“spam”) is killing it. Even the U.S. government is starting to understand the problem. So it should come as no surprise that industry organizations, under the guise of protecting personal privacy, are trying yet again at self-regulation.
The problem is that these industry organizations—TRUSTe and ePrivacy Group—are likely to do as bad a job with self-regulating spam as they did with self-regulating invasions of personal privacy.
Remember the TRUSTe seal of approval for protecting your personal privacy? Oh, sure you do. It became abundantly clear in the spring of 1999 that TRUSTe’s “trustmark” is as useless as lipstick on an eelpout. TRUSTe was called upon to investigate Microsoft’s invasion of its customers’ privacy and in less than a week found that the software giant had not violated the TRUSTe license agreement. Even though Microsoft acknowledged it shared its customers personal information with its websites. Never mind that Microsoft just happened to be one of TRUSTe’s biggest sponsors.
Now they’re back with a “Trusted Sender” program for certifying spam. That’s right, spam’s not enough of a problem on its own, now it’s going to be certified. In short, spammers that follow a set of standards will get to display the spam seal of approval. And the standards are as laughable as those for the privacy trustmark. Remember that in order to display the TRUSTe trustmark, the website needn’t avoid violating anyone’s privacy; it just has to publish its guidelines for dealing with personal information it gathers. Similarly, the Trusted Sender seal will be awarded to any spammer that includes an opt-out provision and accurate subject lines.
TRUSTe will apparently administer the spam seal of approval program, using technology from ePrivacy Group, and provide dispute resolution services.
In a bizarre twist, TRUSTe chairman and cofounder Lori Fena acknowledges the core problem of spam, noting that email’s “effectiveness is severely threatened by the amount of unwanted and unsolicited email.” But the Trusted Sender program does absolutely nothing to stop the flow of spam. Instead, its intent is basically to make the net safe for spam, allowing users to “verify the legitimacy” of email. To “verify” an email message, the user must actually open the email. If the email message carries the spam certification, it will appear in the upper right corner. Presumably this will work only on HTML-based email messages, which leaves the user vulnerable to web bugs, spyware, and other monitoring and tracking technologies. These parasitic technologies can lead to, you guessed it, even more spam.
TRUSTe doesn’t want to stop spam. Far from it. Rather, TRUSTe wants to elevate spam because online advertising response rates suck so badly. As a result, spam will only get worse because it’s so cheap for the spammer. CNET cites a Jupiter Media Metrix estimation that within four years we can each expect to receive an average of 1,400 spam emails each day.
Opt-out programs of any kind have proven to be unworkable for protecting privacy and they’re just as unworkable for stopping the flow of spam. Our email boxes should be kept spam-free unless we actively opt-in to receive such messages. Why should we bear the burden to be removed from future mailings? The solution is simple: put the burden where it belongs, on the spammers, by extending the “junk fax” section of Title 47 of the U.S. Code to cover spam and by making the forgery of email headers illegal. The only possible legitimate opposition to this is that it violates the spammer’s First Amendment rights. Fortunately that opposition has already been dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
It’s clear that the Trusted Sender program is a familiar last ditch attempt by online marketers to deflect any potential government regulation of spam (the program is endorsed by the Direct Marketing Association, Microsoft MSN, and DoubleClick). It worked with making the net safe for violating consumer privacy, so why not rinse and repeat to make the net safe for spam. Or are we to believe that some of TRUSTe’s main sponsors—Microsoft, AOL Time Warner, Excite@home, Concentric, and Verizon—are actually concerned about the amount of spam we have to deal with. Last I looked, the vast majority of spam I receive comes directly from these companies or one or more of their business units.
The one shining light in all of this is that maybe, just maybe, the Trusted Sender spam seal of approval will make it easier for us to filter certified spam straight to the trash.
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