A national registry of consumer e-mail addresses would make things easier for spammers and could actually increase the total amount of spam, the Federal Trade Commission has concluded.

As part of the federal CAN-SPAM Act, which became law in January, the FTC was mandated to report on the feasibility of establishing a National Do Not E-Mail Registry, similar to the wildly successful Do-Not-Call registry. Today, the FTC published its report, which concluded the idea is a wash.

"We learned that when it comes down to it, consumers will be spammed if we do a registry and spammed if we do not," FTC Chairman Timothy Muris told reporters at a press conference today. "Spammers would ignore the law," Muris said. "Even worse, they'd use the registry as a source of valid -- and spammable -- addresses. It would be virtually impossible to stop them."

According to the report, a national registry would fail to reduce the amount of spam consumers receive, might increase it, and could not be enforced effectively.
Read Article >> Posted by: DTB at 9:05 PM  |  Permalink