Is Spam Aimed At Canadians Actually Declining?

Dear CAUCE Canada Members,

My colleague Pippa Lawson agreed that I pass the position statement (below) on to you. She is reacting (as am I) to an Ipsos-Reid Survey released this past Thursday, which, by way of telephone interviews with average Canadian Joes and Janes, came to the conclusion that spam levels had dropped by an astounding 19% this past year, due in part to the less-than-parking-ticket-like sanctions imposed by PIPEDA, the Canadian privacy law that has yet to be applied to spammers in any significant way (there were two so-called 'findings' made at the very end of 2004).

So strong is our law in the stultified view of this study, that apparently even spammers from other countries, who contribute far more of the spam load than do Canadians, have scrolled back out of fear of a slap on the wrist from the Canadian Privacy Commissioner. Alternatively, perhaps it is the secondary level of PIPEDA penalties dissuading spammers from intruding upon our network: a really hard slap on the wrist.

Anyway, both the timing and the wording of the finding of this survey are most interesting.