5. Promoting Public Awareness

Stopping Spam: Creating a Stronger, Safer Internet
Report of the Task Force on Spam
May 2005

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The Challenge

While there is much that lawmakers, enforcement agencies, ISPs and other network operators, and commercial emailers can do to fight spam, there is general agreement that all Internet end-users, whether they are employees, students or consumers, have an important role to play in the ongoing battle against spam.

It is also clear that, in order to help Internet users play their part, more needs to be done to inform them about what they can do to limit the amount of unwanted commercial email they receive, to protect themselves and others against viruses, to avoid falling prey to fraud and to prevent their computers from being turned into "botnets" used without the user's knowledge to send spam.

There is a considerable amount of readily available information on the steps users can take to limit the amount of spam they receive and avoid falling victim to the kinds of deceptive, fraudulent or other criminal practices associated with spam. However, public opinion surveys have demonstrated that more effort is needed to communicate this information, particularly as it pertains to emerging threats that can compromise machines, harm consumers and undermine Internet security.

Some of the simplest messages – such as "do not open unsolicited emails," "do not buy from spammers" and "do not provide personal information if you are not certain who you are dealing with" – have either not yet reached all users or not been understood. For example, the Ipsos-Reid Ipsos Trend Report Canada for May–June 2004 reported that more than one third of online Canadians open their spam emails, and that the main reason they give for doing so is curiosity.

A recent study by Option consommateurs also indicated that certain groups might benefit from increased education and awareness efforts tailored to their specific needs. These groups included people under 30 – who reported receiving more spam than other groups – and the elderly.

Given the low rates of positive consumer response needed to make spamming operations commercially viable, awareness of the relationship between the incidence of spam and consumer behaviour needs to be more strongly emphasized as part of the toolkit approach.

Because of their direct relationship with Internet users, ISPs and legitimate sellers of goods and services are in good positions to deliver a public education and awareness campaign in partnership with consumer groups and governments. The challenge facing the Task Force on Spam, therefore, was to facilitate the development of an appropriate social marketing and communications campaign aimed at users; and to implement it in conjunction with consumer groups, other government departments and agencies, and interested international partners.

Task Force Actions

The Task Force reviewed existing public opinion research related to consumers' views on spam, and looked at current education and awareness campaigns, both in Canada and in other countries. Many of these initiatives had enjoyed limited exposure, but in certain cases, key messages had lacked consistency. Following the review of research and initiatives, the Task Force developed a general communications strategy to identify the objectives, key audiences and necessary tools of a potential broad-based public education campaign on spam.

The "Stop Spam Here /
Arrêtez le pourriel ici" Campaign

The first phase of the campaign strategy was the development of a bilingual Internet-based user-education campaign. Critical to this initiative was the development of consistent key messages and a common look, and the broad dissemination, by a wide range of partners, of three key tips to help users protect themselves and fight spam.

Working with communications and marketing experts, the Task Force on Spam developed an icon that could be hosted on partners' websites and would contain a link to user tips available at http://www.stopspamhere.ca and http://www.arretezlepourrielici.ca. Information on becoming a partner is also available at these two websites.

The Task Force enlisted both government and non-government partners to host the icon on their websites.

There has been a strong response to the "Stop Spam Here / Arrêtez le pourriel ici" campaign from organizations in the private and public sectors, as well as from the general public. Between November 25, 2004, the date the site went live, and April 2005, there were more than 500 000 unique visits to the site, and some 200 organizations joined the campaign.

Recommendations

The "Stop Spam Here / Arrêtez le pourriel ici" campaign has started a process of educating Canadian Internet users about what they can do to reduce the amount of spam they receive in their inboxes and avoid falling victim to the kinds of deceptive, malicious, fraudulent and otherwise illegal activities associated with certain kinds of spam.

However, much more needs to be done to enable Canadians to play their part in fighting spam, beginning with enhancing the "Stop Spam Here" and "Arrêtez le pourriel ici" websites, and extending the information they provide to other communications media.

General messages that apply to all consumers, of the kind in the "Three Key Tips" presented below, provide a solid foundation for raising awareness and educating the public. However, the Task Force believes that in order to make further progress it is also necessary to develop awareness and education campaigns that are targeted to the specific needs and interests of different groups in the Canadian population.

The Task Force feels that it is particularly important to engage small and medium-sized enterprises in the fight against spam, since they stand to be among the major beneficiaries of a spam-free e-commerce environment.

We therefore recommend the following:

Recommendation 15:

As part of its ongoing effort to increase user awareness and education, the federal government, in cooperation with interested stakeholders, should continue to promote the "Stop Spam Here / Arrêtez le pourriel ici" user-tips campaign by encouraging others to link to the websites, and through the use of other appropriate methods and media.

Recommendation 16:

The federal government, in cooperation with interested stakeholders, should continue to maintain and enhance the "Stop Spam Here / Arrêtez le pourriel ici" websites in order to increase their value as education tools and sources of appropriate links to other anti-spam resources, and to ensure that they remain up to date and relevant (e.g. by including information on industry best practices and future anti-spam legislation and complaints procedures).

Recommendation 17:

The federal government, in cooperation with interested stakeholders, should develop appropriate and consistent anti-spam education and awareness campaigns tailored to the needs of different target audiences.