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May 05, 2004
Microsoft's Spam Legalization Plan
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
Microsoft will try to legalize spam-that-is-not-spam through an agreement with IronPort to support its marketer shake-down technology. (The picture comes from Noticiasdot, a nifty Spanish-language computing publication, and proof that spam, not love, is the universal language.)
The result? Microsoft will let spam-that-is-not-spam (marketing messages from marketers who claim they honor opt-outs and have real stuff to sell) through its filters, into the inboxes of MSN and Hotmail users. The spammers will pay a bond and sign a contract, and Microsoft will collect the bond if they fail.
But what are the marketers really buying?
Microsoft can't get their messages into my inbox. I use Mailwasher
Microsoft can't guarantee that anti-spam activists will whitelist spam-that-is-not-spam, even if Microsoft has been paid to clear it.
IronPort's Spamcop, which will whitelist spam-that-is-not-spam, is not assured it will be able to remain competitive in that business if it's essentially taking pay-offs.
Spam is any mass e-mailing I didn't ask for. If I didn't ask for it, I'll blacklist it. If I'm on a legitimate list and decide I don't want to be there anymore, I'll blacklist it and let the list owner figure things out. With Mailwasher I can even delete personal e-mails from trusted friends, if I just don't have time to read it or I'm having a tiff with 'em. (No one need be the wiser.)
It's my inbox. It doesn't belong to Microsoft, nor should it. It doesn't belong to IronPort, either, and I'll blacklist them if I wish.
So what are these marketers buying? Only access to Microsoft's captive customers. And what's that really worth? I guarantee it's not as much as Microsoft and Ironport think.
Comments (1)
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Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Paul M Johnson on May 5, 2004 06:16 PM writes...
I agree with you except in teh case where you don't pay anything for your hotmail.com inbox (ditto yahoo, google mail, etc) If you don't pay for the inbox the firm that is nice enough to give you one for free has every right to generate revenue from you.
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