Internet Privacy on Campus??

So i cant help but be annoyed by the constant barrage of "spam" coming out of Ball State's mass email system.

I'm relatively protected from the outside world as I only use my email address in certain places that I'm sure wont result in spam. On campus, however, I dont have this option. Whether i like it or not, my bsu email address is open to whomever can get their message approved.

Which, by my observations, doesn't take all that much. You just have to have a legitimate "cause". Most often that cause is advertising some event.

I don't mind certain advertisements for certain events because even I find myself creating advertisements all the time for work and student groups. I think there's a limit tho, and I usually follow that limit. I don't push the advertisement on anyone, they can be free to indulge in the advert or they can ignore it, it makes no difference to me.

Now, obviously, Google has taken on a similar approach to advertising. Their adverts are less-intrusive and don't annoy the crap out of you when you see them. You can choose to ignore them, and no-one cares.

On campus, all I can do to ignore them is use "Mark as Spam" in Gmail. Now, that works and all, but it also sometimes blocks things that I'm interested in. When this happens i have to read through my spam section and weed out the "good" spam from the bad spam. I'd rather not have to do that, but on my end its inevitable.

My suggestion to UCS, or whomever is in charge of the mass mail list, is to target these emails to those who actually may want them.

Targeted emails are nothing new, advertising companies have been doing it for ages. They have people fill out forms telling who they are, what they're interests are, where they're from, etc... That allows them to target their emails toward customers who might actually read them.

If we're approaching SPAM on campus as just that, SPAM, then I think this is the best way to do it.

For example, if I were to fill out a form like the form below, with a list of emails that I wouldn't be against getting and reading. I'd likely be less annoyed by the emails I get. I actually might even enjoy receiving more of them.

This form would probably be best designed by a sociologist as it would be an entire project within itself.
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Name: Dustin Sparks
Major: Telecommunication + Multimedia
Minor: Digital Media, Computer Science, Business Administration.
Year: Sophomore
Age: 20

Classes: Class List
Class 1....
Class 2....
etc..

Interests: Sports
Mens Basketball
Football
Womens Volleyball

Interests: Student Groups
International Digital Media and Arts Association
Ball State Game Developers Club
Electronic Gaming League
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