An email that does not render on mobile phones would drive about 30 percent of recipients to click the unsubscribe button, according to a new report from BlueHornet. Mobile optimization is growing in importance. This number is up from 18 percent last year, indicating that now is the time to stop talking about mobile-friendly emails and start implementing them. The report also revealed that 24.5 percent of people unsubscribe because the email is no longer relevant.

Tomorrow morning, The House Judiciary Committee is holding the first in a series of hearings that will consider whether or not to expand privacy protections for email and other forms of electronic communications. Under the current rules, police only need a subpoena to read someone's emails, but privacy advocates are convinced that police should require a warrant to access someone's emails.

While it can be nice that LinkedIn recommends that you connect with friends and colleagues based on who you email, the site's access to your contacts can also get a little out of hand. Matt Haughey, blogger and co-founder of gas tracking site, Fuelly, accidentally emailed 1,138 people requests to connect on LinkedIn without realizing it. Haughey gave the site access to his email address book and was given the option to deselect people who he did not want to connect with, but instead of going through the whole list, he only saw six names. Haughey compared LinkedIn's mass email …

Andrew Auernheimer has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for illegally accessing AT&T's servers and stealing more than 100,000 email addresses of iPad users. Prosecutors say that Auernheimer was part of a group of individuals that illegally accessed AT&T's website to steal email addresses. He then allegedly gave the email list to the media blog Gawker, which published the names in redacted form.

After a year of decline, spam volumes rose 92 percent in February, according to new metrics from German security firm Eleven Research Team. The company reported that phishing emails rose 69.8 percent, malware-infected email rose 156.9 percent, and virus outbreaks related to emails went up 49.8 percent during the month.

Minimus.biz, an e-commerce site that sells travel-sized products, wanted to grow their Pinterest presence and created an email marketing campaign to do so. The emails encouraged recipients to explore the company's Pinterest page and check out "small things." The campaign helped Minimus increase its average monthly Pinterest followers increase by 304 percent. In addition, the company saw its monthly average repins increase by 115 percent.

Andrew Auernheimer, a man who stands accused of hacking into AT&T's servers and stealing more than 100,000 email addresses from iPad owners, faces sentencing in a federal court in New Jersey today. Prosecutors claim that Auernheimer was part of a group of individuals that illegally accessed AT&T's website to gain the list of email addresses. Then he allegedly gave the email list to the media blog Gawker, which published the names in redacted form.

Dropbox has acquired email application company Mailbox, in a deal whose terms were not disclosed. The company will continue to operate the email inbox organization tool as a stand-alone app. The app is designed to help users manage their inboxes and includes the ability to delete messages, save emails for particular times in the future, and get push notifications from messaging.

The Wheaton, IL Police Department is warning consumers to beware spam email messages from scammers promising to give tax advice and assistance. These spam emails may look like they come from the IRS or legitimate tax services companies, and can even include tax forms. But, the police department warns, they are designed to trick consumers into sharing personal information.

Consumers are becoming more open to receiving email marketing messages, party due to the popularity of smartphones. According to new research from email marketing services company BlueHornet, 43 percent of consumers read emails most frequently on their mobile phones. The report also found that 63 percent of consumers said that they would make a purchase from an email that they viewed on their mobile device.