Spam email: it seems that Bill Gates was wrong
In 2004 Bill Gates stated: "Two years from now, spam will be solved". It seems he was terribly wrong.
Today "spam" is a pretty common word and almost everyone knows that it means unsolicited advertising emails, also referred as junk-emails. Maybe only a few internet users know the origin of this meaning of the word "spam", which refers to the brand of a (low quality) canned meat pretty much advertised in the early '70s and thus picked on by Monty Python in an unforgettable sketch.
Since the dawn of internet, the term "spam" has been used to designate the junk-mail becoming synonymous. The phenomenon of email spam has been growing exponentially over the years, reaching the incredible current quote. Despite Gates' forecast, according to his Microsoft 97% of all emails in circulation in this moment would be spam. A problem which has significant costs, affects internet users, diminishes the value of email as a tool and requires the adoption of countermeasures ever stronger, as remarked by Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media.
Actually, UE legislation has been prohibiting unsolicited email since 2003, but just a few member states enforce this precept.
According to the latest researches, Europe appears to be the second geographic area in the world as spread of spam with 23.6%, preceded by Asia with 34.8%. The phenomenon appears to be slightly dropping in the U.S. - third place with 19.4% - while it is rising rapidly in South America (Brazil in the lead), currently at 19%. According to data released by a company in the industry, in the EU Italy seems to be the Queen of Spam with 2.3%, which correspond to a 12th place in the world ranking, where Italy used to be 8°.
According to a report commissioned by McAfee, spam would have economic costs and significant environmental implications, as all junk-mail on the market appear to consume 33 billion kW per year, generating 17 million tonnes of co2. For sure, the phenomenon creates serious troubles to both individuals and companies, forced to constantly clean up their inboxes doing the slalom among emails, phishing, worms and other threats, not always detected by anti-spam and anti-virus softwares. Companies also have an additional problem because the implementation of filters and software to reduce the impact of this sad phenomenon ends up interfering with transactional email, lefittime newsletter and email marketing campaigns, where emails are often intercepted by anti-spam filters.
See also: Contactlab
Today "spam" is a pretty common word and almost everyone knows that it means unsolicited advertising emails, also referred as junk-emails. Maybe only a few internet users know the origin of this meaning of the word "spam", which refers to the brand of a (low quality) canned meat pretty much advertised in the early '70s and thus picked on by Monty Python in an unforgettable sketch.
Since the dawn of internet, the term "spam" has been used to designate the junk-mail becoming synonymous. The phenomenon of email spam has been growing exponentially over the years, reaching the incredible current quote. Despite Gates' forecast, according to his Microsoft 97% of all emails in circulation in this moment would be spam. A problem which has significant costs, affects internet users, diminishes the value of email as a tool and requires the adoption of countermeasures ever stronger, as remarked by Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media.
Actually, UE legislation has been prohibiting unsolicited email since 2003, but just a few member states enforce this precept.
According to the latest researches, Europe appears to be the second geographic area in the world as spread of spam with 23.6%, preceded by Asia with 34.8%. The phenomenon appears to be slightly dropping in the U.S. - third place with 19.4% - while it is rising rapidly in South America (Brazil in the lead), currently at 19%. According to data released by a company in the industry, in the EU Italy seems to be the Queen of Spam with 2.3%, which correspond to a 12th place in the world ranking, where Italy used to be 8°.
According to a report commissioned by McAfee, spam would have economic costs and significant environmental implications, as all junk-mail on the market appear to consume 33 billion kW per year, generating 17 million tonnes of co2. For sure, the phenomenon creates serious troubles to both individuals and companies, forced to constantly clean up their inboxes doing the slalom among emails, phishing, worms and other threats, not always detected by anti-spam and anti-virus softwares. Companies also have an additional problem because the implementation of filters and software to reduce the impact of this sad phenomenon ends up interfering with transactional email, lefittime newsletter and email marketing campaigns, where emails are often intercepted by anti-spam filters.
See also: Contactlab
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