Chanatown

Article first published as Just How Safe Is Your Email Address? on Blogcritics. Tell me if this looks or sounds familiar: "Dear Customer, As we have communicated over the course of the last week,  Epsilon —a marketing vendor that sends e-mails on our behalf—notified us about unauthorized outside access to files that included COMPANY NAME customer e-mail addresses.  The information obtained was limited to the e-mail address of some customers. No account information or other information was compromised. We’ll continue to provide updates when we have important new information to share. And, we’ll let you know what impact, if any, these developments will have on you." The letter continues with how protecting customers is a top priority, how you should ignore emails requesting confidential information, and an apology for the inconvenience.  When I first received this email, I deleted it thinking that this kind of stuff happens from time to time.  Howe...

Let me know if this looks familiar: A colleague recently came in and mentioned that all of her contacts received a virus email with inappropriate content. Most likely, you can relate, and an increasing number of us have been the "sender" of malicious mail. So I thought I'd put together a short to-do list to ensure that this doesn't happen to you. Of course, there are no guarantees, and spamming seems to be an unnecessary part of the digital life, but here are a few things I've done to minimize the pain.