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CNN Live At Daybreak
Poll on Spam
Aired May 08, 2003 - 06:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Spam, not the kind you eat, but the kind that pops up. Irritating, isn't it? So irritating Gallup did a poll on it.
Gallup Poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport is with us this morning with some interesting numbers.
Good morning, Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Good morning, Carol.
It's irritating. It's a very serious problem for many Internet service providers. The federal government had a conference on it last week. There are lawsuits being filed, legislation being considered about it.
The statistics -- and I've really reviewed the data here -- show 42, that's the number of unwanted spams that the average person in America gets in their mailbox each day. AOL even estimates 70 or 80 percent of all the incoming e-mail in its system is spam, believe it or not.
Look at the problem here. Back in 2000, 37 percent in a Pew study said that they got too much spam, so much so that it was a problem.
Now, we just re-asked the question again and look at the number. That's startling to us, at any rate, on the left. Sixty-seven percent of e-mail users say that they get so much spam in their mailbox that they consider it to be a significant problem.
What are people doing about it? Well, here's what I think is difficult to do, but people are doing, and that's shifting Internet service providers, shifting their e-mail service. Thirteen percent of e-mail users say they've already done that. It's difficult to do, Carol, as you know, because you have to change your e-mail address, and that's very difficult to tell everybody, hey, get me somewhere else now. Considering quitting, that's another 24 percent. And then the rest of us, we may hate it, but we're still hitting the delete key, which I guess is remedy number one for spam.
Carol?
COSTELLO: That's because the other two options are just too difficult.
I was just wondering, do people get more spam at work or at home?
NEWPORT: Oh, it's at home, no question about it. We looked at some research done a few months ago. Fifty-one percent of people at home say that a quarter or more of their e-mail is spam. At work, at least as of a few months ago, 21 percent, but I seem to at my job here be getting more and more spam every day. This may even be changing week by week.
Carol?
COSTELLO: Oh, you can't believe the spam we get here. Some of it's, well, not fit to print.
NEWPORT: Well, that's a topic for another discussion, what those spam people want us to buy.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
NEWPORT: Very fascinating.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
Frank Newport, many thanks to you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 8, 2003 - 06:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Spam, not the kind you eat, but the kind that pops up. Irritating, isn't it? So irritating Gallup did a poll on it.
Gallup Poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport is with us this morning with some interesting numbers.
Good morning, Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Good morning, Carol.
It's irritating. It's a very serious problem for many Internet service providers. The federal government had a conference on it last week. There are lawsuits being filed, legislation being considered about it.
The statistics -- and I've really reviewed the data here -- show 42, that's the number of unwanted spams that the average person in America gets in their mailbox each day. AOL even estimates 70 or 80 percent of all the incoming e-mail in its system is spam, believe it or not.
Look at the problem here. Back in 2000, 37 percent in a Pew study said that they got too much spam, so much so that it was a problem.
Now, we just re-asked the question again and look at the number. That's startling to us, at any rate, on the left. Sixty-seven percent of e-mail users say that they get so much spam in their mailbox that they consider it to be a significant problem.
What are people doing about it? Well, here's what I think is difficult to do, but people are doing, and that's shifting Internet service providers, shifting their e-mail service. Thirteen percent of e-mail users say they've already done that. It's difficult to do, Carol, as you know, because you have to change your e-mail address, and that's very difficult to tell everybody, hey, get me somewhere else now. Considering quitting, that's another 24 percent. And then the rest of us, we may hate it, but we're still hitting the delete key, which I guess is remedy number one for spam.
Carol?
COSTELLO: That's because the other two options are just too difficult.
I was just wondering, do people get more spam at work or at home?
NEWPORT: Oh, it's at home, no question about it. We looked at some research done a few months ago. Fifty-one percent of people at home say that a quarter or more of their e-mail is spam. At work, at least as of a few months ago, 21 percent, but I seem to at my job here be getting more and more spam every day. This may even be changing week by week.
Carol?
COSTELLO: Oh, you can't believe the spam we get here. Some of it's, well, not fit to print.
NEWPORT: Well, that's a topic for another discussion, what those spam people want us to buy.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
NEWPORT: Very fascinating.
COSTELLO: Exactly.
Frank Newport, many thanks to you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
