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Everyone’s getting into the anti-spam crusade, even those purveyors of regular old paper-and-ink junk mail. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), which represents marketers who directly target consumers, is supporting a call for legislation to restrict spam. This marks a reversal of the group’s earlier position. Now the DMA says that federal regulators should ensure that spam recipients can remove their names from mailing lists. The DMA hopes that Congress will pass a law by the end of this year or next. The group asks that the new laws charge $11,000 per violation. Consumer advocate groups weren’t too excited at the revelation. Some believe that the DMA is joining the anti-spam campaign in order to soften future legislation – the group says that legitimate marketers should still be allowed to use email.
Microsoft ups corporate communications control
After the much-publicized 2002 year of the whistleblower, Microsoft has made it more difficult for private company information to find non-private eyes. The company said Friday that it is developing technology to control who can see, print or forward internal documents and emails as part of a year-old Trustworthy Computing program. The new program would also automatically delete files by programming in an expiration date. The new Windows Rights Management Services aims to control leakage of information, intentionally or accidentally, to outsiders. Microsoft says it has logged hundreds of corporate complaints about leaks. The very public blowups of Enron, Tyco, etc., during the past year have companies understandably skittish. Yet whistleblower groups complain that this will make monitoring of large companies more difficult. They call the Microsoft innovations a new scheme to keep information quiet. That Microsoft is the company introducing these developments is certainly no coincidence. During the federal government’s antitrust lawsuit against the Redmond, Wash.-based company, internal emails and documents proved very damaging.
Fourth-quarter online sales soar 28.2 percent
Online sales grew more than 25 percent during fourth quarter 2002 compared to the same period in 2001, the Commerce Department said Monday. Web sales reached $14.33 billion, still a tiny 1.6 percent of total U.S. retail sales. The 28.2 percent increase was comparable to the second quarter’s 24.5 percent gain, although a bit off of the third quarter rise. Comparatively, sales grew by 29.3 percent for fourth quarter 2002 versus third quarter 2002. According to the Commerce Department, overall retail sales grew by 5.1 percent from third to fourth quarter. Analysts warn that Commerce’s figures are distorted by the fact that they don’t adjust for season or holiday variations. The department has tracked e-commerce numbers since late 1999.
Swiss researchers crack email security code
Swiss researchers have decoded technology used to prevent web “eavesdropping” on emails, Lausanne’s Swiss Federal Institute of Technology web site said last week. Professor Serge Vaudenay claims to have unlocked a message encrypted by the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol technology. United States cryptography experts were quick to point out that this is not the most widely used security device for online shopping, and that the code allegedly cracked pertains only to emails. Even for that, the SSL isn’t that popular. U.S. experts said that the code breaker would have to control a network computer where messages flowed between two emailers. They say that the code breaking only affects messages in transmit, not at either end of the process – where security breaches are more likely to occur. An OpenSSL patch is actually already produced to protect the system.
Nielsen//NetRatings will debut new service
Nielsen//NetRatings will introduce a new service to complement its existing web measuring devices during second quarter 2003. The MegaPanel, which has already been launched in France, Germany and the U.K., samples more than 1 million internet users worldwide to deliver ecommerce transaction capabilities, granular analysis of smaller sites, and survey capabilities. MegaPanel will be weighted to the industry standard random digit dial panel. It will represent a cross-sample between home, work and university users.
February 25, 2003© 2003 Media Life
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