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June 24, 2003
Spam, Eggs, Bacon and Spam
Today Bill Gates sent out a company-wide email (I still get a kick out of seeing an email from billg in my inbox) and press release about how bad spam is. I'm sure most of us didn't need an email from Chief Software Architect of the world's largest software company to tell us that spam sucks.
What I find interesting is that spam isn't a technological problem. What I mean is, spam isn't a problem caused by insufficient technology (like the insecurity of PINs instead of, say, retina scans). It's not a problem that's easily fixed by technology, but held back for political or business reasons (like instant messenger interoperability). It's not even a matter of the government not investing enough money into the problem.
The problem, as stupid and low-tech as it is, is people. It's people who are sending out the one million bulk emails about printer cartridges, or penis enlargers every day. And as long as they keep getting a response rate of 0.01%, it will be cost a effective and successful business.
One "solution" is email filters on the user level. This may stop 99.99% of the spam that reaches your inbox, but it doesn't solve the problem. It doesn't even slow it down. In fact, spammers try innovative ways to slip past filters, like by putting periods in the middle of words ("Sa.ve mon.ey on stuf.f"), purposely misspell words, or giving really misleading subjects ("I missed your call..."). Why they think tricking people into reading their emails will make them more willing to buy their herbal Viagra is beyond me.
Despite how much spam you're stopping, the spam is still out there, literally clogging the Internet's pipes, forcing businesses to invest time and money dealing with it. Recently Microsoft has tried a very low-tech (and very American) way to help curb the flow of spam: lawsuits.
So what's the "magic bullet" to stop spam? Spam filters? Paul Graham thinks so. I personally don't share his optimism, especially if spammers keep getting sneakier. Is litigation the answer? Not if spammers move their operations to countries that don't have any such laws.
I don't know what the solution is, but I personally don't see an end to spam anytime soon. Now to go clean out my inbox.