Spam: The Devil is in the Details

I read an interesting article this morning that I thought might be of interest to all readers. Tom Spring of PC World magazine writes a regular column on Spam, how to stop it, and how to get rid of it.

Today's column was about how we all give permission to spammers to send us all the spam we never wanted. How? By signing up for free newsletters, downloading free software, access to web sites, and other offers.

How is that possible? You know those incredibly long and boring legal privacy policies, end-user license agreements, and terms-of-service contracts that pop up for almost everything these days? Many of them contain little paragraphs that give the vendor the right to spam you and sell your name off to anyone they want.

They count on you not to read them, and once you click the "Accept" button, they have you in their slimy little talons for as long as you have that particular e-mail name. A few years ago, I once sent my wife an on-line greeting card at her office just to let her know I was thinking of her. Within minutes, she started being bombarded with spam. It got so bad, she had to change her e-mail name.

The bottom line is that we all should read those contracts a bit more carefully, as hard as it is to do so. Even so, you will still need some sort of spam blocker these days.

As a sidebar, I read one of those short agreements yesterday (before the above mentioned article came out), after I downloaded a software I thought would help me better manage my new web site. After installation, I happened to run Microsoft's Anti-Spyware. It picked up that my wonderful new software contained a Trojan horse that would allow someone to invade my computer get access to private information. I can tell you that was not in the agreement I read.

In any case, I invite to read this very informative article. Go to:

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,120099,00.asp

PS: Thanks to all of you who responded to my call for help about my web site. It really helped and I was able to correct the problems and now all is well. Interestingly enough, my provider, Donobi (of course), was apparently the last of the local providers to update their DNS server so I could get access to my own web site. Their days with me are numbered.