Commentary

Just an Online Minute... Silly Study

I usually see red every time a company does a survey to prove that the world is in dire need of the products it makes, and most of those surveys quickly find their way to my "deleted" folder, but there was something so absurd in this one I had to mention it.

Symantec, which among other things makes anti-spam software, yesterday released the results of a survey based on 1000 respondents, which naturally shows that compared with last year, consumers are somewhat smarter in their dealings with spam, but there's more to be done in terms of educating them about anti-spam solutions currently available. Of course, Symantec is planning to do just that, but there's more.

Symantec compared the results of the April 2003 survey with findings from an identical survey conducted in September 2002 and the comparison revealed that "while the amount of spam received by users has not changed, computer users have become more educated about anti-spam tools. For example, in September 2002, 42% of respondents reported that they did not have a spam filter. By April 2003, the number of respondents without a spam filter had dropped to 31%."

Rewind that. The amount of spam has not changed? Where have these people been? Spam has grown exponentially over the last few years, as every email user will attest to. According to Ferris Research, the average number of spam messages an Internet user in North America gets daily is 10, and by 2008, that same user will get 41 pieces of spam each day, a 310% increase.

Am I missing something or does Symantec win the "most ridiculous announcement of the month" award?

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