Source:
The Toronto Star
Flow of spam subsiding
CURTIS RUSH
STAFF REPORTER THESTAR.COM
New data shows that the tide is turning in the war against spam.
A survey released today by Ipsos-Reid found that for the first time in four years, the amount of spam emails has declined in Canada.
And that, said Ipsos-Reid vice-president Steve Mossop, will be hailed by all those people who get bogged down at work by unsolicited emails.
"It's a hot topic," Mossop said, adding that the drop in spam makes email clutter more manageable. "It affects everybody. The numbers are staggering."
In 2004, online Canadians received an average of 177 emails per week, 87 of which — or 49 per cent — were spam.
That's a dramatic improvement over 2003 when 134, or 68 per cent, of the weekly average of 197 emails were spam.
Prior to this, spam volumes had been doubling every year, the survey results showed.
People were getting an average of 30 spam messages per week in 2001, and 64 in 2002.
Mossop attributed the decline this year to the fact that consumers, businesses and Internet Service Providers are becoming more successful at implementing filters that weed out spam before it arrives in your inbox.
"The spam filters are getting much better," Mossop said. "Still, there's a bit of a ways go."