Survey Says Spam Erodes U.S. Trust in E-Mail

By ANICK JESDANUN

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are e-mailing less and trusting e-mail less because of the growing flood of junk messages, a survey finds.

Twenty-nine percent of e-mail users have reduced their overall use of the medium, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The snapshot from last month is higher than the 25 percent recorded in June, though still within the margin of sampling error.

Meanwhile, 63 percent of e-mail users say they are less trusting of e-mail overall because of spam. That’s up from 52 percent in June.

The Jan. 1 enactment of a federal law restricting junk messages has had little effect on spam, according to the survey. Among those with personal e-mail accounts, 53 percent saw no change and 24 percent saw an increase. Only 20 percent got less.

The random telephone-based survey of 1,253 adult e-mail users in the United States has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. It was conducted Feb. 3 to March 1.

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Pew Internet and American Life Project

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