Spam
Congress to take on spam, copyright
When the 107th Congress ended its work last November, politicians discarded dozens of technology-related bills that had been briefly considered but were never enacted. Now that the 108th Congress has begun this week, some of those controversial proposals dealing with spam, copyright and Internet taxes will resurface–and some stand a better chance of becoming law. January 8, 2003, 4:00 AM PT
Email Security
Encryption
You can encrypt your messages – using an application such as PGP (See the Offical PGP site)
Reduce the chances of someone accessing your email:
- Never save your password
- Web-based email:Copies of your correspondence are likely to be stored in the cache
- Always log out of the email site if it’s a web-based email service
- Clear the cache and close the browserAnonymous Remailers
allow you to send email without revealling your name or email address
Junk email – usually anonymous & Spam
Ask yourself, how did you get on the spammer’s list?
No combination of measures is foolproof
* Never reply to spam
* Use filters
* Notify your ISP or email provider
* Read privacy policy and help documents provided by your ISP and email provider.
* Don’t put your email address on your webpage if you can avoid it (use a hotmail or other free account or a mailing form that hides your address)
* Don’t put your address into web forms and the like – keep a free ddress specifically for mailing lists
Confidence Tricks
Beware of scams, there are as many on the Internet as in the real world.
- Don’t reply to anything suspicious
- Don’t believe sob stories
- Don’t get involved in chain emails
- Petitions: If a petition asks you to put your name on the end and pass it on to 50 of your friends, just think: your name will appear on 50 lists: petitions are only any use if they have unique names/signatures.
Cookie dangers
Cookies can report on your surfing and even your email address:
Bill Thompson clicked on a link in an email and found himself the target of pornographic email