Reducing Unwanted Email
Junk email (spam) is a significant problem for computer system users and administrators. People must spend time dealing with spam in their electronic mail boxes because they rely on email as a communication tool both at work and at home. In addition, the processing of these junk email messages consumes sometimes-scarce computer and network resources.
Here are some tips to help reduce the amount of junk email arriving in your mailbox:
- Never respond to unsolicited email. While some unsolicited email messages promise to take your name off their mailing list, they are usually confirming that they have a live address by asking for a response. Whether the unsolicited mail uses a web page or an email address as an "opt out" service, you are likely to wind up on more (rather than fewer) mailing lists by asking to be removed from one you never chose to join in the first place.
- Do not publish your email address on your web pages. There is commercial software which uses web crawler technology to harvest email addresses from web sites. This software looks for text strings which match the format of email addresses and collects them.
- Use an alternate email address in public forums, such as newsgroups. If you have a free email account or an account with an ISP in addition to your McMaster account, you may wish to use one account for posting to newsgroups and all other public communications, reserving the other account for friends, family and work. By using a secondary email address in all your public communications, you will limit the publication of your main email address and minimize the amount of spam you need to deal with in your primary account.
- Do not give out your email address unless you know how it will be used. If a web site asks for your email address, be sure you know what it intends to do with that information. Read the terms of use and privacy statements on any site before providing your email address. If you cannot find a privacy statement on a web site asking for your email address, do not provide your email address.
These tips have been adapted for use at McMaster from an original document posted on the University of Waterloo website.
Service Desk
| Hours: | Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 4:30 pm |
|---|---|
| Phone: | 905-525-9140 x24357 (2HELP) |
| Email: | uts@mcmaster.ca |
| Location: | Main Campus BSB Rm. 245 |
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| http://www.mcmaster.ca/uts | |
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