Net users are becoming more accepting of spam as a way of life, according to a new survey released yesterday. It found that while we're just as annoyed by junk e-mail as ever, more and more of us are getting used to it and just working past the problem.
The study, released by Pew Internet and American Life Project, said spam has made 53% of American adults less trusting of e-mail. That's down from 62% last year. There has also been a fall in the number of people who said they were spending less time on e-mail - from 29% to 22%. In part, that may be because of more widely-used spam blocker programs, or webmail systems which have that sort of functionality built in.
"It shows some level of tolerance that people are manifesting," said Deborah Fallows, a senior research fellow at Pew and the study's author. "Maybe it's their getting used to it. Maybe it's like other annoying things in life - air pollution, traffic - they are just learning to live with it."
The survey also found a higher number of users were setting up e-mail addresses without standard words in them, in an attempt to avoid "dictionary" attacks.
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