Information for media
Although email users have recently been increasingly concerned about the growing amount of junk mail, the latest “Inbox Polls” survey data show that most of the spam has been subscribed to by the users themselves.
97% of email users admit that they have subscribed to messages sent by one or more companies, and every fourth user receives e-newsletters from more than six. Interestingly, Latvians have been keener to subscribe to various companies’ news than Russian speakers. At the same time, almost half of the respondents admit that they leave e-newsletters they previously signed up for unread or delete them immediately.
Līga Besere, a representative of the Information Technology Security Incident Response Institution CERT.LV, explains that we can reduce the amount of unwanted email in our mailboxes if we more carefully consider to whom we give our email address and for what purpose we publish it.
“One of users’ habits is registering their email on various websites that require it in order to gain free access, as well as in various draws and lotteries, which is why their ‘mailbox gets cluttered’ afterwards,” says Besere. The CERT.lv representative also urges users, when signing up for a company’s loyalty programme, to check whether a box for receiving news from third parties, for example from the company’s partners, has been ticked, unless they wish to receive such information. “Often the box is already ticked, and to opt out of the news you have to untick it yourself, but users often do not notice it at all,” added Besere.
However, the respondents do not deny that various news and offers received by email have often helped them purchase a product or service on better terms. In the last six months, every fifth survey participant has received at least two to four good offers electronically and made use of them, while 15% of respondents have used more than five useful offers.
In addition, email users receive only a very small part of the total volume of spam. Andrejs Čelnovs, Technical Director of SIA “Inbokss”, said that the server filters of the “Inbox.lv” portal block 95-97% of various spam messages every day that users have not subscribed to, including fraudulent emails.
“Because of information overload, email users tend to perceive all unnecessary messages as spam, regardless of who the sender is – a company, a colleague or a friend. If an email is not needed at a given moment or there is no time to look into it, in the user’s view it often becomes spam. It is no coincidence that only 17% of survey participants admit that they carefully read all or most of the information they receive by email,” says Čelnovs.
CERT.LV, in cooperation with “Inbox.lv”, maintains the Latvian spammer blacklist (LMMS). The aim of the blacklist is to block the sending and receiving of email from those IP addresses in Latvia from which large volumes of unsolicited email are sent. All interested email service providers can use the Latvian spammer blacklist maintained by “Inbox.lv” and CERT.LV to block spam senders in Latvia (more information about LMMS is available at http://blw.cert.lv/). CERT.LV has been operating since 1 February 2011 in accordance with the Information Technology Security Law and is responsible for promoting information technology security in Latvia. CERT.LV performs its tasks under the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Latvia.
For more than 10 years, “Inbox.lv” has been Latvia’s largest multifunctional portal, offering its users a wide range of services – from email and file sharing services to entertainment – games, the ability to upload and share their photos, etc. According to the latest TNS data, “Inbox.lv” has more than 800 thousand active users, and for the third year in a row Inbox.lv is in the TOP3 of Latvia’s most loved brands.
About the research:
The research was conducted by SIA “Inbox” using the virtual tool “Inbox Polls” in August 2013, surveying more than 1800 internet users. The data obtained are representative of all internet users in Latvia.
Additional information:
Tija Ezeriņa
Project Director, Public ID group
M: 29719893
Email: tija.ezerina@publicid.lv
