Unforeseen consequences of fighting spam (2004)

The Law of Unintended Consequences is hard at work...

Assuming spam fighters continue to be successful, email spam will decline in the medium term. When that happens, inadvertent spamming will clearly stand out. Anti-spam "vigilantes" will be ready to pounce on any such unsolicited mail.

So, organizations should make doubly sure that their employees don't spam, by...

1. Ensuring compliance with laws, such as:

• US CAN-SPAM of 2003
• Various EU states' privacy laws implementing EU Directive 2002/58/EC
• Australian Spam Act 2003

2. Taking care not to be accused of being a spammer. See the two Ferris Research reports on this subject from February and April 2004; look out for any updates we publish during 2005.

3. Honoring consumers' privacy: the laws are a minimum bar. See the Ferris Research report from  September 2004, The Impact of CAN-SPAM on Legitimate Direct Marketers.