Microsoft Says No (Again) to Spam

Microsoft announced yesterday that it would be implementing a new spam-filtering innovation for its email platforms, aptly named SmartScreen Technology, to rid users of unsolicited mail.

SmartScreen, which essentially learns what is and what isn’t spam, identifies and blocks unwanted e-mail based on user feedback. Hotmail users first catalog spam characteristics and, subsequently, SmartScreen generates rules to apply to these commonalities of inbound e-mail. A score is then tallied regarding its spam probability; the user receives messages sorted by the spam score.

Already introduced to Hotmail, MSN8, and Outlook 2003, SmartScreen will serve as a further endowment to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. The package, out in early 2004, will be called Microsoft Intelligent Message Filter.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said that fighting spam is a priority for his company and feels that what it’s “doing with technology…makes the business proposition for spammers no longer attractive.”

Recent studies by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that not only does the volume of spam comprise more than 50 percent of total e-mail traffic, but half of all users have become more weary and less trusting of e-mail.

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