Perceptions of unsolicited electronic mail or spam

The proliferation of unsolicited electronic mail or spam is becoming a global concern for many organizations. This paper explores perceptions of unsolicited email, its impact on personal productivity, the question of whether spam is an invasion of privacy, the perceived need to control spam, and the effectiveness of unsolicited email. The results clearly show that while the respondents find spam annoying, they spend very little time in dealing with it. Although the respondents express the need to control spam, they do not believe that governmental control is the solution, but rather that Internet Service Providers and organizations should take the responsibility for controlling unsolicited email. Lastly, the respondents are very unlikely to open, let alone read, and respond to unsolicited email. The results of this study will be useful for guiding organizational, university, and public policies