While many Boston University students receive unsolicited email everyday, James Stone, the Director of Consulting Services at Information Technology, assured the community that BU does not sell students’ addresses to outside market companies.
The problem of excessive, unwanted email has worsened worldwide over the past few years, Stone said. According to Stone, spam-spewing companies access private email addresses when Internet users post them in chat rooms or on bulletin boards. Stone also said he thought students could receive junk mail from companies who use generators that send mail to addresses of millions of combinations of the alphabet.
However, Stone said BU’s IT department refuses to contribute to this problem.
“Speaking for Information Technology, we do not and would not subject students to electronic marketing,” Stone said. “The desire [of who receives their emails] lies with the student.”
According to Stone, BU has never received offers for student email lists. However, he stressed the University would never agree to such a deal.
“In general, it would not be a popular idea, and it would not benefit students,” Stone said. “No one likes to come home and have to throw away junk mail.”
Jared Casey, a College of Communication freshman, said he has fallen victim to emails of questionable material.
“I have received spam at my Hotmail address,” Casey said. “I don’t know where these people come from, but I’m tired of invitations to adult parties at the zoo.”
If individuals wish to lessen their chances of receiving spam on their BU account, Stone said they should be careful of which companies they provide their BU email addresses to.
“You should treat your email address like any other piece of sensitive information,” said Stone, “Before you give out your electronic email, ask yourself, ‘Do I know this company,?’ ‘Is this a reputable company?’ Your email is connected to you. It is part of you.”
Other students, such as Sally McIntyre, a College of Fine Arts freshman, said spam clutters their mailbox so much they lose track of the messages they actually need to read.
“The most annoying thing is when you accidentally delete a real message, thinking that it is spam,” McIntyre said.
Sometimes, electronic solicitations feature an option at the bottom of the page to be removed from the mailing list; however, according to Stone, pressing this button will only confirm to the company that they have reached a real address. The smartest method to avoid more junk from the same company is to just delete it, he said.
COM freshman Annie Fleming said she has had problems with receiving unwanted e-mail solicitations.
“My email account has a limited amount of space. Sometimes my account will be so full of junk mail that I cannot receive the mail that I want,” Fleming said. “One time, I was sent 50 to 75 copies of the same advertisement for diet pills. I had registered to receive information about concert tickets, so they might have gotten my address that way.”
Addresses are not acquired through online shopping sites, according to Stone. He said vendors are careful about protecting identities of customers, since their business depends on it.
In the most extreme cases, Stone said the IT office gets involved and employs tools to get rid of spam. Stone said the department looks at the source of the material, determines whether it is of an objectionable nature and examines the frequency that it is received. They then help the individual to filter out the excess.