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More information on this topic can be found
in Chapter 10 of the textbook.
A lot of information is available online for finding contact information on individuals and businesses. You can search email directories for a mailto: of your choice, look up phone numbers and query interactive yellow pages, and locate specific maps and driving directions to many places (especially metropolitan areas of the United States).
Online White Pages:
Online Yellow Pages:
Maps:
Free Email:
You may want to consider setting up a free email account at one of the sites listed below...unlike the email that resides on your computer, these free email accounts are accessible wherever there's an internet connection -- at cyber-cafes, public libraries, etc. If you do any traveling at all, an online email account can keep you connected no matter where you go.
Ethics and Privacy:
Where does all this information come from? Some of it comes from public sources such as telephone directories and registration lists for online services. Some information, such as email addresses, are culled from newsgroup postings. When you provide personal information online (to browse travel information or purchase items online), you are relinquishing control over this information. Many services claim that their lists will not be used for commercial purposes, but there is no way to really track what happens to your personal information once you provide it. Basically, once data hits the internet, it's public.
Spam is unsolicited commercial email -- the online equivalent of junk mail. Some companies use email lists that they cull from legal and questionable practices to mass-mail their advertising or appeals for donations. Spam is bad because the receiving party (you) bears the majority of the cost of the delivery of the spam, many of the offers are fraudulent, and it usually involves theft of resources (not to mention spammers who forge email headers or relay off servers they were not authorized to use).
If you want to fight back, you can report spam to the spamcops -- http://spamcop.net. You need to paste in a full copy of the spam including full headers. The SPAMCOP form runs through all the tiresome tracking down of the origin of the spam and composes a very official looking and authoritative email that a click will have mailed to the appropriate parties.
Email your instructor
© Howard Community College 2002
Last updated: 16 Apr 2003
