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Steering clear of spam
by Emily Wilska
In this issue: Preventing spam,
What's being done?,
Filters and fly strips,
Microsoft's anti-spam efforts,
Canning spam
Last month, we talked about some tips for getting rid of the spam you already receive. This month, we'll take a look at ways of avoiding spam in the first place; we'll also check out what Microsoft® and MSN® TV are doing to help improve the spam situation.
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Preventing spam
In order to use many Web sites and online services, you often need to provide some basic info, such as your e-mail address. Many sites use your info in a legitimate way — to send you an update on something you've bought, for example, or to send you a monthly newsletter you've subscribed to. However, there are other sites out there that ask for your e-mail address with the intent to sell it to other companies who'll spam you, or to send their own spam.
Use the following tips to help stop would-be spammers from flooding your Mail list:
- Be wary of sharing personal info — especially your e-mail address — with Web sites you're not familiar with, or those that don't clearly state what they'll use your info for.
- When filling out on-line forms, look for pre-checked boxes, read them carefully, and uncheck them as needed; often, sites will automatically opt you in to receive mail from them unless you uncheck these boxes.
- Instead of opting to let Web sites remember your e-mail address, user name, and password, consider keeping a written list of this info (store in a safe place!) to refer to when you're online.
- Consider creating one account on your MSN TV box to use as your "spam magnet"; when you're asked to provide an e-mail address online (when registering at a Web site, for example, or posting to a newsgroup), use the address for this secondary account. Any spam that gets sent from these Web sites or newsgroups will come to your "spam magnet" account rather than your primary MSN TV account.
- When signing an online guest book or creating your own Web page, use your name only, not your e-mail address. Programs called Web crawlers have the ability to automatically gather e-mail addresses from things like guest books and Web pages; spammers then use these e-mail addresses.
- Some Web sites use cookies (pieces of information that help the site remember things about you after you've visited, such as your e-mail address or what state you live in) to target people for spam. You can use the MSN TV Utilities tool (located under the Quick picks section of the main Help index) to check and clear out your cookies on a regular basis.
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What's being done?
You may have seen news stories on what Congress and Internet companies are doing to help stop spam. Some of the things they're working on, such as new laws, are a ways off, while others are in the works now. Here's a peek at some of the things MSN TV and Microsoft, are doing to help stop spam both now and in the future.
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Filters and fly strips
One way we help stop spam before it gets to you is by using filters. We use two different kinds of filters: one looks at the sender of an e-mail message, while one focuses on the content. The sender-based filter helps stop mail from servers that are known spammers, or who are sending so much e-mail that it's almost certainly spam. The content-based filter looks for keywords and content that signifies that the e-mail is spam. If either of these filters catches a piece of spam, it's immediately deleted, so it'll never reach your mail list.
We also use something called a Probe Network, created by the company Brightmail, which uses a collection of more than 200 million e-mail addresses to attract spam before it's delivered to you. The Probe Network works much like a fly strip, catching and collecting spam before it has the chance to reach you.
These two tools help us block approximately 5.5 million pieces of spam from reaching MSN TV subscribers each day. And we're always working to improve and refine the filters we use to make them even more effective at sniffing out and blocking spam.
We've also created a new feature that helps you quickly determine which messages in your Mail list are from senders you know and which aren't, so you can quickly delete messages that may be spam. To learn more about this feature, called known senders, check out last month's Tech Talk, or take a look at the Unwanted e-mail (spam) section of Help.
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Microsoft's anti-spam efforts
In addition to the measures we take today to stop spam, Microsoft is also working on longer-term efforts to prevent spam from reaching you and to stop spammers in their tracks. A few months back, Microsoft joined with AOL and Yahoo! to work together to fight spam. The three companies are working to get other Internet services and e-mail providers involved to develop tools and technologies that will help all of them stop the spam headache.
Microsoft continues to work on improving the methods we use to prevent and stop spam now, and is also working with Congress to help create laws that will punish spammers. To read more about some of the things the company is doing, check out this article by Bill Gates: Toward a Spam-Free Future.
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Canning spam
It's unlikely that spam will disappear anytime soon. However, by using the tips we've discussed in this article (and last month's, too), you may be able to keep your Mail list relatively spam-free. Good luck, and may all your days be spam-less!
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