Why I chose to get spam a lot

Originally posted at Medium (free friend link).

You’re in a conversation, and when it ends you check your phone, and there is an ad for something that was mentioned in passing.

Or you’re doing something around your house. An ad comes up relating to your activity.

This has happened more than once. One time, I used the plunger on the toilet. My phone and laptop were two rooms away. First thing I saw when I was back online was, “Need a plumber?”

No, thank you.

Scratch that. No, and NO THANKS for asking!

I really don’t want my laptop or phone knowing what I’m doing, or guessing what I’m thinking. I feel like my privacy is invaded, and would feel that way even if it was only Big Tech watching us. What’s worse is that the FBI and NSA are watching as well, which can really put a chill on what I’m doing, saying, or browsing.

But there is one area where I wish technology was smarter: email. The spam filtering is becoming worse than useless. It’s not serving me. In at least one of my email accounts, about half of the spam folder emails isn’t really spam.

It’s not always the mail server’s fault. Let’s say I’m at an event, and I want to support the organizing group. There’s a form I’m given where I voluntarily give my email address to receive updates.

Days later, I find out the group did send an email, but it was in the spam folder. I don’t mind that; the email server shouldn’t be aware that I signed up in person. My server’s algorithms had marked it as spam because it assumed the email was unsolicited. Nobody’s fault.

Here’s what I do have the right to expect: when I mark the email as “Not Spam” or “Not junk,” then subsequent emails from that same organization should end up in my inbox. Always.

That’s not what happens. They often end up right back in the spam folder.

Apparently, the emails go there because of group behavior. Lots of other people had marked it as spam, so “obviously” it must be spam.

But it’s not spam to me, and I had specifically said so.

What’s even more frustrating is when I subscribe to a list online, and the emails still go to spam. If my laptop knows, from two rooms away, that my toilet isn’t flushing properly, why can’t it figure out that emails I subscribed to on that very laptop can’t be spam?

In the past, this had been frustrating for me from the other end as well. The non-profit I worked for sent out information 3–4 times a week and didn’t sell products, and it was impossible to unknowingly subscribe to our list. But subscribers who lost interest would mark our emails as “Spam” and then our emails were sent to the spam folders of other subscribers who still wanted our material.

Those subscribers who lost interest should have clicked “unsubscribe” instead of marking as spam because they has initially agreed to receiving the emails, and spam should be reserved for unsolicited mass emails. But I don’t blame them. Marking as “spam” is the quickest way to make unwanted emails disappear.

I’m just saying that if I mark something as spam, that doesn’t mean it should go to your spam folder as well. It should be up to you.

My spam filters have captured personal replies from friends, family, and businesses that should have gone to the Inbox. I shouldn’t have to be constantly checking the spam folder just to see if I’ve missed anything.

A couple of days ago I decided I’d to have no spam box at all and just receive everything to my inbox, deleting unwanted emails as I go. One server allowed me to do this pretty easily. In another, I had to create rules that I hope will prevent any email from entering the junk folder.

I probably wouldn’t mind that the spam filtering is as inefficient and “dumb” as it is, except my devices are otherwise “smart” to disturbing levels. Receiving email is the one activity in which I want Big Tech to know my activities, habits, and preferences online.

James Leroy Wilson writes from Nebraska. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. If you find value in his articles, your support through Paypal helps keep him going. Permission to reprint is granted with attribution. You may contact James for your writing, editing, and research needs: jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com.