Informing Science InSITE- “Where Parallels Intersect ” June 2003 Spam and Anti-Spam Measu.pdfVIP

Informing Science InSITE - “Where Parallels Intersect” June 2003 Spam and Anti-Spam Measures: A Look at Potential Impacts Christopher Lueg University of Technology, Sydney, Australia lueg@.au Abstract The proliferation of unrestricted Internet access has brought the community spam which has become a serious problem costing companies billions of dollars per annum. Typical anti-spam measures, such as filtering and blocking techniques, exist but focus on solving the spam problem on the message transpor- tation level. Using such techniques may have impacts beyond the realm of spam- filters and block lists. In this paper we argue that implementing typical anti-spam measures means that computers are assigned the power to assess legitimacy of email. This means, for example, that legitimate email might be re- jected because the sender used the wrong mail server or the wrong terminology. In this paper, we d e- scribe some of the core problems and discuss alternatives. Keywords : spam, spam filter, blacklists, information filtering, legitimacy, solicitation Introduction The advent of the Internet has enabled numerous novel forms of business and leisure activities (e.g., Castells 2001). Popular examples are e-business companies like and online communities, respectively. Pro liferation of unrestricted Internet access also enabled new forms of interacting with cus- tomers. Kania (2001) outlines that the Web [one of the Internets most popular services] allows two - way communication [...] a dialogue in which buyer and seller learn more about one another. Aaker and Joachimsthaler (2000) argue that to understand the Web, an experience