Check out this hilarious rant from some American guy who seems to have an issue with spam filtering. When I read it I didn’t know whether I should be angry or rolling on the floor laughing.
In his article he makes the following (erronous) claims:
Spam filtering is similar to a mailman opening, reading and sorting your mail
Spam filtering is actually an automated process. There is no human behind a screen reading someones mail. In fact, implementation of spam filtering would be impossible using humans to read mail and classify it as spam, as it would be inefficient in terms of cost, scalability and speed.
The author claims that privacy is violated because of this “reading” of mail. It is not, because it is done by “dumb” computer programs that detect patterns in e-mail that are characteristic of spam. These programs are unable to understand what actually is being discussed in e-mails.
It would take a real human to read e-mail and violate someone’s privacy, for example by looking for sensitive information and using it for extortion or blackmail.
In the end, e-mail could be read by any e-mail provider anyway. By using (unencrypted) e-mail you’ll have to trust the company that provides the e-mail service since they have full control over the systems and can read any e-mail of any user when they want. I guess that Mr. Fredinburg doesn’t mind that AOL can read his e-mail at will…
Spam filtering systems extort companies by providing delistings for a fee
Most spam filtering systems will automatically delist you when the spam has ceased for some time. Granted, there are systems like UCE-Protect that offer “express delisting” for a fee. But in general blacklists don’t exist because there is money to be made in this way. Spam filtering exists because there is a market for spam filtering solutions.
Yes, there actually is money to be made in spam filtering. Why? Because companies and end-users will gladly pay for services that save them a lot of time and money.
Reporting e-mail as spam is bad for the economy
When people regard certain e-mail as spam, most of the time it actually is spam. Businesses should always use confirmed opt-in procedures to make sure people want their e-mail. If their e-mail is considered spam then obviously people don’t like their marketing tactics, and the company should rethink their e-mail policy.
(quote) You are hurting yourself and a lot of innocent people in order to avoid a few clicks of the delete button each day.
Spammers that take people’s time and money don’t have any right to complain that they are being “hurt”. They cannot demand people to read their crap because that is people’s own business, just as people have the right to throw away paper marketing material without reading it.
Also, Just Hit Delete is not an option because a lot of people would receive tens of spam e-mails a day. Would Mr. Fredinburg like to hit delete 50 times a day because some spammers think he is “interested” in their offers? I don’t think so.
(quote) Think hard next time, before you arbitrarily toss someone into the lake of fire (Spam Box) about the fact that you might be harming an innocent entrepreneur just because you are too lazy to click delete.
Those “enterpreneurs” are unscrupulous business(wo)men who are far, far from innocent and only care for money and are lazy themselves, for failing to come up with a solid business plan and choosing instead to steal people’s time and money. They don’t deserve any compassion at all.
By the way, also check all the other stuff on this guy’s page. It is literally plastered with ads for all kinds of paranoid nonsense: Health Myths Exposed, The Fluoride Deception, Are Vaccines Safe?. The cherry on the pie is this ad:
I’m not even going into this, I don’t know where to start…
Sites like these are the reason why free speech is a good thing. Without it the world would be free from extremely funny kooks ranting away on the Internet!
