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.
