Sometimes it's not much fun being right -- but it seems I was right when I
suggested that we should beware of i4free's attitudes to direct marketing.
Yes, according to reports from IDG, they're not only encouraging their users
to annoy friends and colleges, but it seems that the i4free's own staff are
now rather clumsily firing out unsolicited email to harvested email addresses.
Bad form i4free -- and although they continue to protest their innocence, I
think they'll be judged by their actions rather than their words.
Please support the advertiser
Poor Janet Simons
Remember that last weekend a MS Word virus was doing the rounds, prompting
the FBI to issue a global alert.
The virus was contained in a bogus resume which purported to be from a "Janet
Simons." I reckon the real Janet Simons must be one of the most unlucky
people in the world -- nobody will ever accept her resume via email -- so sad.
Bufoonery Is Infectious
Good old ISOCNZ officialdom, just when you think they might actually be
learning which way up to place the keyboard, they go and do something stupid.
This time they sent out an email to members and put the entire mailing list
in the "To:" field -- so that all recipients got the list as well as the email.
What's worse, in an age when the experts are warning people to stick to plain
text emails -- they sent their message as an HTML document which is pretty
unreadable to those who use simpler (and safer) email clients -- and which also
has the potential to carry malicious javascript trojans or viruses.
Avoid contact with these people -- it would appear they have an intelligence-sapping
virus that is far worse than any of the computer type.
Has It Been Done Already?
Time for another million dollar Aardvark idea...
With paranoia about email viruses and Internet security at an all-time high,
and as business turns en-masse to embrace the Net as a method of streamlining
communications and cutting costs -- who's going to be brave enough to launch
an email client or service that offers the following desirable features:
- Automatic strong encryption
- Digital fingerprinting
- Built-in virus checking/scanning with auto-referral to the latest online
databases of known viral/trojan agents.
- High levels of spam-resistance
It's really not brain surgery -- and it's one of the few niches where I think
a smart, hard-working, adequately funded startup could really make a huge dent
in Microsoft's armour on the Net.
Of course it's a chicken-and-egg situation for general comms use -- because
to fully use most of the best features you'd have to employ the same software
at each end -- but there are pretty effective methods for getting around 90%
of those problems.
Mind you, the Net is a big place and maybe someone's already done it -- but
the fact that I (and obviously the vast majority of other business users)
don't know about it means they're not doing the marketing properly.
If you know of such a product then
let me know and I'll pass the information on to Aardvark
readers.
