mail than it might be in many of your kitchens.
The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (www.cauce.org) and Survey.com, an e-research firm, have issued the survey results as part of what they call a research initiative aimed at tracking spam statistics and providing hard data to lawmakers and regulatory officials now mulling responses to spam problems.
It might be stating the obvious, but the joint survey says Netizens don't object to receiving e-mail ads from those with whom they already have some kind of relationship (51 percent saying yes).
"This study bears out what we've known for some time, which is that the best way to use e-mail as a marketing tool is to first build a relationship with a consumer, then use e-mail to cement that relationship," noted CAUCE co-founder John Mozena. "Blasting e-mail advertisements out to an unqualified list of unidentified addresses is just a recipe for angry recipients."
Survey.com CEO Michael Bach says spammers make it harder for his and other companies to deliver accurate and timely information.
Over 40 percent of those surveyed say they refuse to do business with companies that send unsolicited commercial e-mail, and virtually the same percentage block future e-mail from that sender. More than 60 percent of recipients say that junk e-mail is "not useful," compared to less than three percent who consider such mail "somewhat useful" or "totally useful."
California Congressman Gary Miller has introduced legislation to give Internet service providers more power to fight spam. He says he's encouraged by a survey result which might make both spammers and their critics a little edgy: 76 percent of those surveyed say spam should be regulated by government in some way. But civil libertarians fear such regulation could be used as yet another opening to compromise the First Amendment in general terms.
"This survey confirms what Congress has been hearing from Internet users and system administrators from across the country," Miller says. "Internet users are sick and tired of spam, and they want us to do something about it."
The full spam survey is available at http://www.survey.com/UCERI/survey1.html
