Search results for: “technology”

What the survey means to policy makers. We would like to reiterate a few findings in this Internet user survey that directly speak to some of the issues that legislators, regulators, and technologists are tackling in their fight against spam. As these findings particularly stand out with users, we feel that acknowledging them may help […]

Most Internet users have searched for answers to specific questions. 83% of users have done a search online to answer a specific question, according to our latest survey on the subject in September 2002. The number of those who have used the Internet to answer questions grew 24% from 79 million to 98 million between […]

Spam exists because it is profitable, but emailers have defenses they can use. There are many profiteers in the lucrative spam industry: Email address list builders scavenge and sell lists of email addresses. Software makers and marketers build and sell cheap programs that facilitate numerous illegal spam activities: look for vulnerable, hackable email servers, disguise […]

Internet users share a general concept of spam but disagree on many specific points of definition. Spam is a relatively new phenomenon in American life. The trajectory of its rise is so steep that those addressing the problem are playing catch-up to reach even the first stage – defining spam. In the spring of 2003, […]

Most email users find spam annoying, but do not consider it a big problem. When asked how spam affects life on the Internet, the majority of emailers (59%) describe spam as “annoying, but not a big problem.” On one extreme, 27% of email users say spam is a “big problem” for them, and on the […]

Women, parents, young Internet users, and longtime Internet users have particular responses to spam. A few demographic groups display distinctive behaviors or attitudes toward spam: women hate pornography; parents resent the risks spam presents to their children; younger users have a casual response to spam; veterans of many years’ Internet experience are particularly aggressive toward […]

There is no “typical” email user, and there is no “typical” burden of spam. Spam places a real and uninvited burden on email users. To help assess that burden, we asked emailers how many emails they receive; how much of that incoming email is spam; and how much time they spend dealing with their spam. […]