spam

Google Buzz and contacts silos (and privacy and spam)

Posted 9 Feb 2010 by Laura Scott

Updated below.

So today's buzz is about Buzz, Google's new Friendfeed-kind of thing announced just an hour or so ago. Jeremiah Owyang blogged some quick thoughts, including this:

For consumers, the risk of privacy will continue to be at top of mind. Although the features allow for sharing only with friends or in public. expect more consumer groups to express concern. Overtime, this will become moot as the next generation of consumers continues to share in public.

Setting aside his prediction that privacy will become "moot" — which I don't believe is necessarily true, given that we're still in the bedazzled phase of experiencing social media's integration with our daily lives — as I look at my own use of Google, Twitter, etc., Buzz could turn out to be the means towards breaking down my contacts silos.

Now what about junk mail?

Posted 23 Nov 2007 by Laura Scott
Junk mail stuffed in mailbox

So it seems that spam is getting worse but may be easier to deal with soon:

Reasearchers at IDC predict that this year the number of spam messages sent will eclipse the amount of legit email correspondence for the first time ever, reports USA Today. Approximately 10.8 trillion spam messages will have crossed through inboxes in the past year, compared to 10.5 trillion legitimate person-to-person email messages. The numbers indicate that spam is a growing problem, despite the promise of better filtering technology.

"Two years from now, spam will be solved," said Bill Gates in 2004 addressing World Economic Forum in Switzerland. But 2007 will go down as the worst year yet for spam, a trend that has held for the past four years, according to Rebecca Steinberg Herson, vice president of marketing at Commtouch, an email security firm.

My 5p4m-less life

Posted 2 Apr 2007 by Laura Scott

I have a new technological love affair: SpamSieve. 200+ fewer love notes in my in-box every day.

Alas, I'll just have to do without all that helpful unsolicited information. I'll miss notices that I need to go tell my bank my bank account number. I'll not see all those customer inquiries about my eBay items I didn't realize I'd put up for auction. I'll be oblivious to the fact that I've been approved for a $347,978 mortgage. Warnings to avoid enhancement pills will escape my notice. Forget about cureall [sic] stores and veiny illustrations of male appendages. And the Nigerian Minister will just have to find another lucky soul.

I never realized just how much baseline stress receiving so much useless and offensive crap was causing me. My email is clean, and it's quite a lovely day today.

Contempt for the consumer in text-message spam

Posted 24 Sep 2006 by Laura Scott

Actually, I'm surprised this is only starting now.

Get ready for the inbox on your phone to fill up faster. From fast-food chains to carmakers to consumer goods manufacturers and sports franchises, more and more companies are adopting text messaging as a way to target consumers on the move.

That's right. Once again, international corporations are looking for new ways to invade your space and push their sales pitches into your face.

No web 2.0 for these folks. No viral marketing, no sirree.

Consultant Frederick Newell says companies using text messaging should move carefully because of privacy concerns and must get customers' permission first.

Like they got your permission to show 15 minutes of advertisments for consumer products and tv shows at the beginning of theatrical films.

Subscribe to spam