Support For 'Do Not Spam' List

Five in six Americans will register for a 'do-not-spam list' for which legislation was recently approved in Congress, according to a new study from Synovate. The law, likely to be enacted in 2004 by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), will require those sending email to addresses on the list to comply with certain standards and regulations.

The list is especially popular among women and older people. Males receive more spam than females, according to survey findings, yet '88% of females are extremely or very likely to register compared to 78% of males'.

'83% of Americans are either extremely or very likely to register for the list making it more popular than the telemarketing 'do-not-call list' launched back in October', said Andrew Davidson, Vice President of Competitive Tracking for Synovate's Financial Services Practice.

'On average, Americans get a staggering 155 unsolicited emails in their personal or work email accounts each week with 20% receiving 200 or more', said Davidson. Only 11% of consumers have responded to an email solicitation in the past year, equivalent to about 1 response for every 72,000 unsolicited emails (this is assuming the 11% only responded to one email, but nevertheless illustrates the nature and extent of the problem).

According to Davidson, compliance with the new standards should not be a problem for some of the more genuine e-marketers as 'ultimately it will lead to less email clutter and improved response rates... Americans may not be looking for a complete ban on unsolicited emails as they find value in some of the offers they receive. Fortunately for emarketers and consumers, the anti-spam legislation approved by Congress does not go that far'.

Cynics will no doubt argue that as most spam comes from virtually untraceable senders, and that it is very difficult to prove or disprove the usual excuse that recipients 'registered online' and therefore email is not unsolcited, the legislation is likely to cause more problems for genuine emarketers than spammers, and in any case lots more work for lawyers. Nevertheless, the research shows that the public is enthusiastic.

The eNation(r) study involved interviews with a nationwide sample of 1,000 adults and was conducted by Synovate's Financial Services Practice.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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