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Judge tears apart Republican lawsuit alleging bias in Gmail spam filter (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/1898981

Archived version: https://archive.ph/sfxWW
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230825182626/https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/08/judge-tears-apart-republican-lawsuit-alleging-bias-in-gmail-spam-filter/

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[–] 69 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Spam filters are also built with users in mind.

If users are hitting the spam button, that's people signaling that the email is shit.

If people are telling them to shut up, that's not bias, that's "your words are garbage to GTFO"

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  • [–] 43 points 2 years ago

    Sent an email to my local representative looking to improve things locally. No response, but I was signed up for several newsletters and campaign donation lists after that. Nearly as upsetting as the endless torrent of advertisements from the vet that put down my dog. No, I’m not in the market for heart worm medication anymore. Fuck that vet, and fuck my local rep.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Also, spam filters are trained by user response. Guess what personality type/computer education level is more likely to hit “REPORT SPAM” button versus the more technologically sophisticated and patient methods of deleting an email, unsubscribing, or filtering out, and how that may relate to their political party.

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  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I work in IT and hit Spam on everything I perceive as spam.

    Poison all the data and fuck spammers straight to hell, tyvm.

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  • [+] -15 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    I’ve seen some people deal with newsletters they signed up for that way and it’s unarguably a misuse and abuse of the system. “I don’t want these messages any longer” is not the same as unsolicited or abusive mail. For instance I see a small chocolate company and a granola company in my spam folder in gmail. Do they “spam”? No, there’s a really huge difference between e-mail marketing and spam. It sounds like what you 'perceive' as spam is based on not really knowing what it is.

    Poison all the data

    Is that some juvenile badassery or something?

    fuck spammers straight to hell, tyvm.

    yes, fuck spammers but not small companies doing email marketing. Email marketing is the only effective way to grow a business online these days without paying some giant fuckstick corporation like Facebook, so I don't believe what you stated is accomplishing what seems to be your goal. If you make email marketing unusable, that helps google sell ads.

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  • [+] 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    You’ve never done something and thought “oh hell this isn’t want I signed up for”?

    misuse and abuse

    🤣

    Do you, by chance, run a business that sends out mass email spam?

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    No, I sure don’t. I don’t have anything to do with companies that do legitimate email marketing, either. But I am able to understand the difference.

    I'm not sure what the stupid emoji is supposed to mean, by the way.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    So you’re just a mass-market email fanboy?

    🤣

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    So you're someone who doesn't understand the difference between newsletters and spam, and uses stupid emoji to make your points?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    No, there’s a really huge difference between e-mail marketing and spam.

    From Wikipedia:

    Spamming is the use of messaging systems to send multiple unsolicited messages (spam) to large numbers of recipients for the purpose of commercial advertising.

    So yeah, what you described is spam by definition.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago*

    No, the difference i have noted is solicited vs unsolicited. If you sign up for something it is solicited as based on the definition of the word. Deciding you no longer wish to receive it is different than if you never signed up in the first place. Amazing how confused people are about this.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    unsubscribing

    Great way to show an e-mail spammer that the address works and is monitored by a human. Standard IT guidance for at least two decades has been to NOT use unsubscribe.

    and how that may relate to their political party.

    If there is a correlation between tech savvy and political party it's so small as to be meaningless.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    That’s for actual spam, not merely a newsletter or marketing email you don’t wish to receive any longer. The distinction is my entire point. If you signed up for something and don’t wish to receive it any longer, that’s not spam.

    Older people are more likely to be republicans. Older people are also less likely to be technologically sophisticated.

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