Spam: More or less

A recent post at CIO by Al Sacco, FTC: Spam Declining; Anti-Spam Vendors: Don't Be So Sure..., attempts to contrast the findings of an FTC progress report with the experience of leaders in the anti-spam software business. Roughly:

FTC: there's less spam now that we're on the case

Industry: is not!!!!

It's not terribly surprising that the FTC thinks that it is doing a good job with the CAN-SPAM Act and it's not too surprising that companies want us to believe that there is plenty of spam out there needing to be blocked & filtered by their products. So, maybe the apparent conflict is all just based on self-interest?

That was my first suspicion. But it turns out that there's more agreement between the two sides than first appears. The FTC report is careful to credit technology:

"Statistics show a decline in the amount of such spam that is being sent, and consumers report receiving less in their inboxes, likely due in part to improved blocking and filtering technology and vigorous enforcement of the ['Adult Labeling Rule.']" (emphasis added)

There are two distinct issues that the media seems be treating as one: spam sent by spammers versus spam received by end users. As a user, I would care about how much spam gets to my in-box, and I may not care whether there is less because less is sent or because more is filtered. As a network admin or filter vendor, I would care about the amount I have to filter. Both of these issues matters, but they're different. The FTC, at least, seems to know the difference.