“Spam” is a registered trademark owned by Hormel Foods, Minnesota and is the descriptive name of one of their meat product which many people find unpalatable.
Spam is unsolicited electronic messages: it is the “junk mail” of the Internet! Originally referring to emails that you did not ask for, offering you products or services, it can be extended to include messages received via Instant Messaging, SMS or any other electronic messaging service. Most spam is a result of harmless but irritating bulk email marketing campaigns, while a significant proportion represents attempts at social engineering.
In this post:
Required knowledge:
1. Negative effects of spam
- Inboxes cluttered with spam lead to a loss of productivity in the workplace
- Contributes to information overload
- Takes up storage capacity on server and client machines
- Consumes bandwidth
2. Dealing with spam
- Do not unnecessarily hand out your e-mail address or make it public (on Social Media sites etc.).
- Do not reply to spam. This alerts the spammer to the fact that one of their messages reached an attended inbox (most of the spam messages are just deleted, spam-boxed or sent to non-existent addresses).
- Set up a spam filter in your e-mail. Mark spam messages as spam so that the spam filter can “learn” how to identify spam more effectively.
- Some anti-virus programs include spam filters and there are dedicated utilities for filtering spam, e.g., MailWasher
- If you use an ISP for your e-mail, they may be able to help.
- If you are receiving messages from a business with whom you have or had a relationship and your attempt to unsubscribe has failed, you could attempt to send them a copy of the letter provided by IOZ which can be found here .
- Web developers can implement CAPTCHA on their website forms.
3. Is spam legal?
Like most legal matters, the answer is not a simple yes or no. The following South African law is relevant to the sending of unsolicited electronic messages:
- The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act
- The Consumer Protection Act
- POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act) [1]
Essentially spam violates your right to privacy.
Some takeaways from the above links:
- Unsubscribe links must be added to all marketing campaigns so the recipient can cancel further messages and/or revoke any permission they may have given for the messages to be sent.
- The sender is legally obliged to provide evidence of where the recipient consented to receive the messages if requested to do so.
- Continuing to send messages to someone once they have unsubscribed or indicated they do not wish to receive any further communications is a criminal offence.
References:
- IOZ. (2023). Regulation of Spam in South Africa. Available at: https://www.internet.org.za/spam_legal.html (Accessed: 14 June 2023).