Maintaining Sanity with Rules and Filters (Published in the TechEdge, Spring 2002) by Wesley A. Fryer

Transcription

1 Maintaining Sanity with Rules and Filters (Published in the TechEdge, Spring 2002) by Wesley A. Fryer Is checking a much anticipated or a dreaded event? The overwhelming volume of information available in the twenty- Hirst century network economy takes on a very personal dimension when checking . The proliferation of SPAM (unwanted from unknown sources), newsletters, jokes forwarded by well- intentioned friends, as well as valuable messages from friends and professional contacts can create chaos in the inbox. Educators at all levels need help maintaining sanity when it comes to , to maximize precious minutes devoted to electronic communication. Technology integration is a noble goal, but if teachers are drowning in , their motivation to move further along a continuum of technology literacy may be weakened. This article presents an overview of rules, or Hilters, available in most software, to assist in managing wanted as well as unwanted . Online tutorials including the specihic steps for setting up mail rules and Hilters in six different programs are also available. A copy of this article is available online atwww.wtvi.com/teks. Where is all this SPAM coming from? The more time a person spends surhing the internet, the more he/ she seems to receive. This is not a coincidence: every time a person downloads something that requires a name and an address to be submitted, registers at a website using an address, or includes an address on a mail- in product registration form, the person s address is subscribed to mailing lists and likely shared with other companies collecting addresses for marketing purposes. Tech savvy marketers have set up many websites to automatically harvest web surfer addresses (take information from the surfer computer s memory and insert it into a database) without any permission on the surfer s part to share that information. Internet Explorer and Netscape, the two most popular web browsers, surreptitiously pass along a wide variety of information to websites without the knowledge of the user, if they are conhigured with default settings. If a person s address is listed on a website with a contact link (created with the hypertext code mailto:myname@school.edu, a virtual

2 invitation to SPAMMERs has inadvertently been created. Web based programs, called robots literally scour the internet searching every page for mailto links like these, and create mammoth databases of addresses sold and shared with online marketers. Depending on the privacy policies of the company providing an address, the address may be sold and shared with other companies, with or without prior consent of users. In these ways, the quantity of received by even casual internet users can increase quickly. Drowning in ? Here s Help! If the number of unwanted messages presently received is out of control, drastic action may be called for. Although inconvenient, the best way to quickly change the amount of received SPAM is to change your address. This can be done by contacting the network administrator or ISP (internet service provider) managing the account, or if the account is a free one (like Yahoo Mail or Hotmail) signing up for a new account with a different username. It is not necessary to change service providers: a new username can be requested. After the address is changed, notify those people who you want to continue communicating with (perhaps with a polite request to minimize the number of forwarded jokes and other leisure- time reading, if desired). Do not request or authorize temporary forwarding of sent to the old address, otherwise this procedure will be worthless. If desired, the old account can be accessed periodically for several weeks to make sure you receive any important that was not sent to the new address. In this case, check the old account with a web mail interface instead of a program that will download all to the computer hard drive, like Eudora or Outlook Express. Essentially, the old address should be shed like an old skin and left behind forever. Armed with a new address and a heightened awareness of internet privacy protection, web users can change their online behavior to minimize the number of times their address is harvested by web marketers. Some suggestions include: 1. When Hilling out a web form to register software or download something else, read the privacy agreement carefully and UNCHECK the box that authorizes the company to share your address with others offering similar products. 2. Look for the TrustE logo indicating the company s professed commitment to privacy ( Although display of the

3 logo indicates a professed commitment to privacy, TrustE does not police websites for privacy policy adherence, so the logo does not offer any guarantees. Still, a professed commitment is better than none. 3. Consider entering a false name and address when Hilling out a web form, if you do not want to be contacted by the company. The format for the Hield is usually validated, requiring that the typed address be in proper format, but the address does not have to be a real or working one. Enter a name like Joe Joe and an address of joe@joe.com. 4. Consider surhing the internet with JAVASCRIPT disabled on your web browser. Javascript is required for many of the fancier website graphics and features, but most sites are still accessible without Javascript. Javascript is one programming language utilized by website designers to harvest information about you without your knowledge when you visit a website. Disabling Javascript can foil some of these attempts. Turn it off in the web browser preference settings. 5. Consider entering a false name and address in the options presented in your web browser and internet control panel preference settings. As long as the web browser is not used for (for example, using Netscape Mail), this name and address information does not need to be correct. Web forms auto- Hilled by the browser will need correction, but this is a small price to pay for heightened anonymity. 6. Use mail rules in your program to organize and Hilter received messages. An Overview of Mail Rules/Filters Mail rules provide a mechanism for computer users to process messages automatically based on specihied criteria, to organize and pare down the number of messages regularly received. Mail rules can be used in many ways. Some of the common ones include: 1. Automatically deleting offensive / inappropriate 2. Organizing messages depending on the sender s address or text included in the message, either in the subject line or the message body. For example, all messages from my mailing list with the words Tools for the TEKS Update can be moved into a separate folder for later reading.

4 3. Categorizing messages as suspected junk mail or by the category assigned in the address book (if categories are available) 4. Adding or deleting a sender s address automatically to an distribution list in the address book The steps for creating and invoking mail rules vary slightly depending on the software used, but the procedure is essentially the same: 1. Click on a mail message to be processed by a new rule 2. From a menu, choose to create a new rule 3. Specify the CRITERIA the rule will look for (the IF condition) 4. Specify the ACTION to be taken if the criteria is met (the THEN condition) 5. Apply the rule to already received and/or apply it automatically when new mail is received. The number of mail messages in the inbox can be dramatically reduced while still retaining important/desired messages from known contacts. To determine the specihic steps required to create rules/hilters in your program, consult the help menu. Search for rules, Hilters, or agents, as different programs use different terms. The basic principles and procedures for rules in all programs are similar, however. Many web- based services, including Hotmail and Yahoo Mail, also allow mail Hilters to be created in the account options menu, so web- based (accessed through a web browser like Internet Explorer) can be Hiltered also. Some programs provide junk mail Hilters, a mechanism that helps identify unwanted . Whether using a junk mail Hilter or a mail rule of your own creation, use caution when choosing to permanently delete with an automated function. One alternative is to make the Hilter or rule move suspicious to a separate folder and periodically review its contents before deleting. This can reduce the chance of inadvertently deleting important . It is said There can often be too much of a good thing, and that is certainly the case with electronic communication. By creating and regularly updating appropriate rules and Hilters, educators can effectively stem the powerful tides of information in the inbox and still benehit from the power of digital communication in our information age.

5 Ready to set up rules / Hilters for yourself? Online tutorials are available for Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Microsoft Entourage ( Macintosh only), Yahoo Mail (webmail), and Lotus Notes.! Wesley Fryer is the Director of Distance Learning and webmaster for the College of Education at Texas Tech University. He provides instructional technology training and support to K- 16 educators as a consultant and through his free website, 'Tools for the TEKS.' Addition in October 2002: Rather than taking the time to create your own rules and Hilters, consider using inexpensive, shareware programs like SpamHire (Mac OS X) or Spameater (Windows) which use hundreds of Hilters created by others to pre- screen before it is downloaded to your client. - - This content is licensed by Wesley Fryer under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Republished in January 2014 on