XplanaZine

Dealing with spam is an interesting proposition in Higher Education. We’re all about freedom of speech, intellectual property, and privacy, and even worse is the fact that it’s an extremely heterogeneous community. What that means, in particular, is that universities are somewhat difficult places to practice content filtering.

So, a faculty member calls the local help desk complaining about Korean porn spam that is showing up in her inbox. The poor support bloke explains, quite politely, that there isn’t really anything they can do at the IT level because they don’t want to run the risk of eliminating any important e-mail (like that of the Chemistry professor who is collaborating on a huge research initiative with a colleague in Seoul). She complains further and insists there’s something he must be able to do. He politely suggests she use the “delete” key and things begin to deteriorate rapidly.

This illustrates the dilemma of filtering e-mail at the university. Many of us use Hotmail or Yahoo, or some other ISP. They face the same problems but utilize heavy spam guns or filters to keep our inboxes only with the mail we really want. The problem, of course, is that sometimes they filter items that I really wanted to get. These are some of the issues dealt with at the recent Spam Conference. In addition, a new e-mail coalition set up by the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI has announced it will create a forum on Yahoo Groups to discuss Internet service provider (ISP) e-mail filters that screen out legitimate mail.

A recent Harris Interactive poll found that 80 percent of Internet users found spam “very annoying” and 74 percent favored making mass spamming illegal. Lawmakers are getting in line to pass laws that will make spam illegal. A lot of activity but I doubt we’ll see much in the way of results anytime soon. It is too difficult to control all spam for all users in a heterogeneous academic environment and still promote freedom of speech and protect intellectual property.

Which brings us back to the Help Desk scenario I painted above. What the poor, beleaguered worker was trying to explain is that, if you want the job done right, you may have to take the responsibility and do it yourself. You may have to learn how to use the filters on your e-mail program. You might want to download a third-party program that will help. It would also be a good idea to remember the following best practices for dealing with spam:

1. When you receive a spam, delete it.
2. Never click on any web links or open attachments associated with spam.
3. When you receive a spam, do not reply. If you are given the option to remove your address, do not do so unless you are certain the organization is reputable. This is usually just a way for the originator to verify that your address is still actively used. If you request to be “removed” from the list, your address may simply be resold to another spam distributor.
4. Avoid giving out your primary email address. Guard your main email address just as you would your telephone number. Your main email address is what you would give to friends, family, and business associates. Unless there is a specific reason to give out your main email address to someone other than those you know, consider using a second email address when filling out forms that might potentially lead to your address being sold or leased to other companies.
5. If you post to newsgroups, make your address worthless by using your newsreader’s settings to add something like “-nospam” to your email address.
6. Depending on the type of email program you use, you may also be able to create “filters” to prevent unwanted email from reaching your inbox. Microsoft Outlook allows you to create junk email filters and adult content email filters.

The burden on universities, ulimately, is to provide active training and assistance for faculty and students when it comes to filtering spam. This is one case where a little education would really go a long way.