Tag Archive for 'spam'

New web trend – real time spam

Published on May 10, 2009 in Trends, with 0 Comments. Tags: , , .

Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote a brilliant post the other day about the coming real time web, following comments by Paul Buchheit (inventor of Gmail). Twitter and the Summize acquisition; Friendfeed; and Facebook are the engine room of innovation right now and real time activity streams are now coming to light as the next big thing. (And I know it's only going to get bigger as the activity strea.ms workgroup are nearing the finalisation of their spec - meaning all websites can offer it in a standardised way.)

Whilst innovation is always a good thing to see, let's not forget some of the more innovative people in our world actually are the bad guys. Ladies and gentlemen - introducing real time spam.

The screening of the popular new release movie Star Trek was one of the biggest topics being discussed in the Twitter community (a community where the real time web is at its biggest right now). And the spammers have bombarded it.

#startrek - Twitter Search

The Real Time Web has massive opportunity for our society - especially when everyone is connected. But it also makes us vulnerable - as real time means a captured attention from the audience. And like a police car chase constantly trying to out the bad guys, trying to regulate the Real Time Web could be a challenge.

How to piss your customers off – a lesson courtesy from eBay

Published on March 16, 2008 in Business, with 0 Comments. Tags: , , , , .

I get e-mails from companies. Sometimes I request it; but on the whole I always tick the option "please do NOT send me promotional material". So when I receive e-mails from companies, I give them the benefit of the doubt that it was my error, although this is being extremely generous because I know I never allow them to send communications above what I need. The fact I am getting an e-mail from them already has me tense.

So if a company is going to send me promotional e-mails, I expect courtesy because they are taking up my time. Note to companies about how not to do it:

ebay

"...to change your communication preferences, log into eBay..." and click through the barrage of poor usability options to find that hidden box that allows you to stop being spammed. After all, a one click unsubscribe option or even a link of where you need to go makes it more likely that you would unsubscribe so we adopt of model of trying to discourage you, because we know most people haven't got the effort to action and would rather delete it than remove the sending from the source. Hey, marking us as 'spam' or deleting each incoming e-mail is a better option because the more numbers we have on our mailing list as 'receiving' the more it makes the marketing director feel all warm and fuzzy that we have distribution outlets for campaigns, even though we know you don't read them.

"Please note it may take us up to 10 business days to process your request" because it takes 10 microseconds to technologically do so but we are a bunch of losers who are going to hope you forgot you tried un-subscribing and will send follow up e-mails in that time hoping to win you back, because we refuse to accept we screwed up and have ruined our relationship with you".

Facebook’s privacy is smart on technology but stupid in thought

Published on November 4, 2007 in DataPortability, with 0 Comments. Tags: , , , , , .

I've had to neglect this blog because I have been insanely busy with work and my studies, and will continue to do so for the rest of the year. But I thought I'd post a quick observation I made today, that I found interesting. Even more interesting, because I rarely notice details!

Whenever Facebook notifies you of an e-mail - like for example when a friend messages you - it will actually show you their e-mail. An example is in the screen shot below, which would enable me to click 'reply' to their e-mail and it would go directly to their personal e-mail. (I've noticed however, that this will only occur if you have already added the person as a friend.)

direct e-mail

This raises some interesting issues regarding privacy. The first being, why the heck is Facebook allowing this? Am I going to reply to my friends asking them what did they say in the message?! Privacy is my right to determine when people can see information about me when I want to - and I don't want my friends seeing my e-mail. I can think of an example when a friend collected my e-mail from my profile, and adding me to a forward list of chain e-mails. Unlike the postal system for snail mail, where people pay for sending me a message with a stamp, e-mail forces the user to pay when they receive a message through their time. Before I didn't have a choice, but now with new ways of communicating, I can control what gets sent to me.

This actually is a bit deeper. I've seen fake profiles friend request me - I always deny people I don't know, but I know that lots of my friends usually add people blindly (I remember asking a friend who a friend requester was when I noticed she was a mutual friend with him, to which he replied: "No idea, but she's hot!"). This now just became a very easy way to obtain someones e-mail - certainly, not as easy as harvesting e-mails from a public facing website, but still another means. The concerns however is not spam but identity threats.

A crucial thing to understand about privacy, is the concept of identifiable data. Corporations can collect data about me until their heart is content and I wouldn't mind- but only on the basis they can't specifically identify me. An e-mail address is what I regard as identifiable information: the e-mail I use on various web services that hold different data about me, can be easily linked purely through my e-mail address.

I've previously said how social networking sites are a new type of communications, that are far better than e-mail. E-mail is one of the worlds most powerful technologies but also one of the most dangerous. Whilst most would think it is because of e-mail overload and spam, what I really mean is how a single e-mail address can do so much damage if used by someone trying to investigate you and your life.

As our digital world becomes more sophisticated (and scary), lets be clear of some things. People no longer need e-mail to contact you; they can instead contact your 'identity' which is far superior (I discussed this in the posting I linked to just above). However with this advancement, also comes the opportunity to regard what your e-mail address really is: a key piece of identifiable data that can link your multiple identity's across the digital world into one mega profile.