Majority in Favor of Making Mass-Spamming Illegal Rises to 79% of Those Online

About 40% of all emails received are now spam.
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Public pressure to curb mass spamming with unsolicited emails (which often try to sell pornography, loans, prescription drugs, investments and real estate) continues to mount. In a new Harris Poll of adults who are online, fully 79% now favor making mass-spamming illegal and only 10% oppose doing so.

Given the amount of spam this should come as no surprise. On average people online estimate that they receive more than 40 emails a day, including those at home, work or at other locations, and that 40% of these emails are spam.

These are the results of two Harris Polls, one conducted online between May 19 and 27, 2003 with a nationwide cross section of 3,462 adults who are online, and the other with a nationwide sample of 655 online adults surveyed by telephone between June 10 and 15, 2003.

The types of email which annoy the most people a lot are pornography (86%), mortgages and loans (71%), prescription drugs such as Viagra (60%), and investments (59%). Many, but fewer people, are annoyed a lot by spams selling real estate (51%), software (36%) and computer and other hardware (31%).

Some of these questions were asked in a previous Harris Poll and the trends are, in one sense, a bit of a paradox. Those who favor making spamming illegal have increased (from 74% last December to 79% now). But those who find spamming very annoying have declined from 80% last year to 64% now, and somewhat fewer people (but still substantial majorities) are annoyed a lot by the main types of spam. This suggests that while people may have become more efficient at identifying and deleting spam, this has not in any way reduced their desire to eliminate or reduce it.

Two technical points are worth noting. Some experts have argued that making spamming illegal would not work, and the spammers would move offshore where they could not be prosecuted. The second point relates to the capacity of the Internet system. This survey suggests that if spam could be greatly reduced below its current level (40% of all emails in this research), this would free up a huge amount of space for other more desirable Internet traffic.

Humphrey Taylor is the chairman of The Harris Poll^®, Harris Interactive.

"How much of a problem for you is SPAM – getting unsolicited email from people who do not know you?"

Base: 3,462 Internet users surveyed online

"Which, if any, of the following spam emails annoy you a lot, those selling . . . ?"

Base: 3,462 Internet users surveyed online

FAVOR OR OPPOSE LAW TO MAKE MASS SPAMMING ILLEGAL

"Would you favor or oppose a law to make unsolicited mass-spamming (emails trying to sell goods or services) illegal?"

Base: 3,462 Internet users surveyed online

Note: More than 70% of people of all ages, income groups, blacks, whites and Hispanics, Republicans and Democrats, and both sexes favor banning mass spamming.

"Thinking of all email addresses you have – at home, work, or anywhere else – about how many emails do you think you receive on a typical day?"

Base: 655 Internet users surveyed by telephone

"On a typical day, what percentage of all emails you receive are spam, or unsolicited emails trying to sell you something?"

Base: 655 Internet users surveyed by telephone

The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between May 19 and 27, 2003 among a nationwide cross section of 3,462 adults. Figures for age, sex, race, education and number of adults in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. "Propensity score" weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus two percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, and weighting. It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online survey is not a probability sample.

The Harris Poll^® was conducted by telephone within the United States between June 10 and 15, 2003 among a nationwide sample of 655 adults who are online. Figures for age, sex, race, education, number of adults and number of voice/telephone lines in the household were weighted where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population.

In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus four percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, interviewer bias, weighting by demographic control data and screening (e.g., for likely voters). It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors.

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