“Lost” Email Becomes the “Great White Lie” — and Truth — of Modern Times: Columnist
Nov 17th, 2008 • Posted in: NewsWriter changes tune after suffering email loss himself
TORONTO
While spam has emerged as a relatively clear-cut ethical villain in the world of technology, spam filters and the associated problem of disappearing messages have created a new moral dilemma: the “spam filter ate my homework” excuse.
Ivor Tossell, the weekly “Web” columnist for the Toronto Globe & Mail, discussed the question in a recent entry, writing: “The ‘lost’ e-mail, I have long believed, is the great white lie of the 21st century, the worthy successor to ‘your check is in the mail.’”
Tossell notes that while he long hadn’t believed most excuses about “lost” email, he recently encountered that very problem as critical emails — messages that were to confirm or arrange appointments — disappeared altogether or hid in spam inboxes.
He recounts a recent conversation with an editor who never received an emailed story — a story Tossell explained he “sent last night.”
“In the awkward pause that followed,” he writes in the Globe & Mail piece, I could only ponder the deadening sense that, in any other situation, I wouldn’t have believed me. Somewhere, karma did a little victory dance.”
His conclusion: “Now that I’ve seen it for myself, I believe it: Bombarded by every form of abuse, the e-mail infrastructure is starting to show cracks. It’s becoming unreliable. Spam accounts for well over 80 percent of all the e-mail on the Internet, as the arms race between spammers and the anti-spam industry drags ever on.”
Source: Globe & Mail, Nov. 11.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Oct. 1 — Related Newsline story, June 4 — Related Newsline story, May 5 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 12, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Oct. 23, 2006.
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