The Federal Trade Commission has released a report claiming that the Can-Spam Act is effective in providing protection for consumers. Some 70 percent of the world's e-mail messages are currently Spam, but that figure is levelling off and the report contends that this is due to the Act. The Act has permitted the pursuit of lawsuits against spammers, as well as bringing other important measures into force. However, are these improvements in the amount of Spam reaching users all down to the Act, or have better filtering technologies and better user awareness been the real reason for the levelling off?
Some critics of Can-Spam, which requires an opt-out approach rather than a stricter "opt in" standard, have even suggested that the law may have increased the amount of junk e-mail. That's because Congress intentionally killed tougher state laws, such as one in California that had required recipients to opt into commercial mailing lists.