Free Web-based e-mail services have long used customers as marketing mules, adding an unobtrusive tag line at the end of each message to tout their products. Now, an anti-spam company is drawing fire for using the same tactic. . .. Free Web-based e-mail services have long used customers as marketing mules, adding an unobtrusive tag line at the end of each message to tout their products. Now, an anti-spam company is drawing fire for using the same tactic . Ads, called "spamlets" by one privacy expert, have begun appearing in the signature files typically used to place personal information, such as a name, telephone number and custom greeting, at the bottom of e-mail messages. Some software downloads now include code that inserts a marketing message in this signature file. Once triggered, all e-mail from that address will carry the promotional text. Recent targets of the practice include Web surfers who installed a test version of an anti-spam product from MailFrontier, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based software developer. When Web surfers install its Matador product, the download automatically alters their signature line in Microsoft Outlook to read: "This mailbox protected from junk email by Matador from MailFrontier Inc." The link for this article located at ZDNet is no longer available. . Spam tactics, like altering email signatures with spamlets, severely compromise user privacy in web-based email systems, exposing them to threats and data breaches. Spam, Email Management, User Privacy, Marketing Effects. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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