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Task Force on Spam: Stakeholder Roundtable
December 3, 2004
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Table of Contents
A Canadian Action Plan
Canada's Task Force on Spam
Working Group Mandates and Progress to Date
- Legislation and Enforcement
- Anti-Spam Technology and Network Management
- Validating Commercial Email
- Public Education and Awareness
- International Collaboration
The growing flood of unsolicited commercial electronic mail (generally known as spam) has reached epidemic proportions. According to various reports, in 2002 spam accounted for about 30 per cent of email traffic. In early 2003, the amount of unsolicited commercial e-mail had surpassed that of legitimate Internet communications. This trend has continued despite new laws and regulations being enacted in several countries, resulting in international recognition that laws alone were not enough to resolve the issue. The current volume of spam creates a considerable financial burden for Internet service providers and network operators, whose facilities carry these communications, and has reduced the overall effectiveness of email for the conduct of legitimate business. Consumers, increasingly annoyed and offended by the volume and content of spam messages, are also starting to turn away from the Internet and electronic mail. In the absence of successful means of reducing spam, the problem therefore threatens to undermine the use of email and the Internet as an effective platform for online commerce and general communications.
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