What is spam?
To control spam you first need a useful definition of it. Until you know exactly what you are controlling, you are shooting blindly at an undefined target.
Definitions that don't work
- “Unsolicited email” By itself this means nothing. To prevent it you would have to contact people and ask permission to email them. You don't call someone and ask for an email message, and most email is unsolicited by definition. Your wife or a friend doesn't ask first.
- “Email from unknown sources” You get email from your website from people you don't know, and friends pass your address along to their friends. None of that is spam.
- “Plain annoying email” This is what most people have in mind, and it gets a little closer, but it still doesn't define spam well.
- “Unsolicited bulk email” Closer still, but your bank sends bulk email to its customers, including you, all the time. You didn't ask for it, but you have a business relationship and expect occasional contact. You would not call that spam.
So what IS spam?
Spam is “unethical email,” usually “unethical mass email.” Unethical email violates the standards of the majority of Internet subscribers.
By this definition an individual email sent to a person is not spam. A commercial email is another matter: even a single one may be unethical if it does not follow the rules below.
How ethical and unethical email differ
Targeting
Ethical: well targeted toward its audience.
Unethical: mass mailings sent blindly to thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of people, hoping a few dozen will respond. They don't pertain to most recipients, and 99% or more simply delete them.
Header information
Ethical: valid headers that properly identify the sender. In many places this is the law.
Unethical: forged or invalid headers that make the source nearly impossible to trace. Here even a single message counts as spam.
Double opt-in
Ethical: after signing up, the person receives a confirmation message and must reply or click a link to activate the mailings.
Unethical: any other form of opt-in, because it allows people to be subscribed by others or by accident.
Tracking
Ethical: no web bugs, cookies or involuntary tracking, unless it was clearly stated on the page where the person signed up.
Unethical: tracking the recipient cannot stop, since messages are often opened before the person knows anything about them.
Email harvesting
Ethical: addresses are never gathered by robots.
Unethical: all use of email harvesting. Addresses on web sites are there for individuals to reach individuals, not to join a mailing list distributed on CD.
Open relays and tricks
Ethical: legitimate senders have no need to hide their whereabouts or cover their tracks.
Unethical: using a relay without permission, or sending millions of emails through an unprotected formmail script. It may also be illegal.
Opt-out that actually works
If you run a newsletter or any mass mailing, you must include at least one removal method in the message itself (more than one is preferable). In many places this is also the law, and the method must work. These common opt-out schemes are not valid:
- Requiring the reader to go to a web site, log in and change email preferences. This asks too much of the user.
- An unsubscribe link (or other means) that does not work.
- Allowing opt-out but saying “you will be removed in a week” or some other long delay. These are computers, so there is no reason for delays. Remove the person immediately.
Tired of unethical email?
See how SRS stops it before it reaches your server.