E-mail and Behavioral Changes

Uses and Misuses of Electronic Communications

Fernando Lagrana

• Publisher: Wiley-ISTE
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781848218505
• eBook ISBN: 9781119285120
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Information Technology
• Index: Computer Science

This book is a study of the causes of spam, the behaviors associated to the generation of and the exposure to spam, as well as the protection strategies. The new behaviors associated to electronic communications are identified and commented.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the number of e-mail and textual messages in your inbox, be it on your laptop, your Smartphone or your PC? This book should help you in finding a wealth of answers, tools and tactics to better surf the ICT wave in the professional environment, and develop proper protection strategies to mitigate your exposure to spam in any form.

1
Electronic Mail

1.1. Electronic mail, what is it exactly?

If e-mail is a well-established communication tool and seemingly wellknown, its official definition is not necessary. According to the General Commission of Terminology and Neology¹ and the list of terms relating to electronic mail in the official journal of 2 December 1997 [LEF 97], e-mail, a term in the field of telecommunications and IT, is a “service enabling the user typing, delayed consultation and transmission of electronic documents or messages on computers connected to the network.”

According to this commission, the term is synonymous with electronic messaging, where, strictly speaking, the message takes the name of electronic mail that is “document received, consulted or transmitted by means of electronic mail.” Since 1997, the official journal indicates that “the electronic message can include a text, or a series of sounds or images.”

These two definitions were to be modified by the General Commission of Terminology and Neology in 2003, and published in the official journal of 20 June 2003 [JOU 03]. The current definitions since then are as follows:

• – E-mail: a computerised document that a user receives, sends, or consults at a later stage via a network.
• – Electronic messaging: The service enabling users to receive, send, or consult e-mails at a later stage.

We can see that these new definitions use the term e-mail as the first designation, the term electronic mail being considered as a synonym. In addition to this, the new definitions correct a small imperfection in the former meanings, which could lead one to believe that a message could be looked at before being sent.

Beyond the definitions and their slightly old-fashioned, austere and even stiff impression for a communication tool so innovating, agile and symbolizing modernity as the e-mail, it is the extraordinary adoption of the electronic messaging by the professional world that strikes us.

1.2. The most used communication tool in the professional world

Some years ago, however, some analysts predicted the end of e-mail, in pursuit of more fashionable tools like social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, instant messaging (chat), and even virtual offices [VAS 09]. If these latest tools were made the first choice in the world of private interpersonal relationships, it really is the e-mail which is the most used fundamental and inevitable business communication tool of modern business. The e-mail had even become, during the last decade, the most used mode of communication in the professional environment, overtaking the landline or mobile telephony which were expanding rapidly too.

1.2.1. E-mail or telephone?

During a survey carried out by the company Data Dimension in 2007 [DIM 07], 96% of businesses questioned declared to offer their employees e-mail access, 91% access to a conventional phone line and 86% access to a mobile. For their part, 99% of employees said they used mail for their professional communications, 80% the conventional phone and 76% the mobile.

In the course of a more recent survey [LAG 11], which covers 45 active businesses in the IT sector, we have established that 100% of them provide e-mail access to their employees, 93% access to a conventional phone line and 95% access to a mobile. Better still, 86% of the companies questioned provide e-mail access to their employees on two or more devices, (office computer, laptop or smartphone) and 100% of employees used e-mail as their professional ends.

All the same, the enterprises consulted were part of an industrial sector which favors the use of electronic communication tools. The second survey confirmed without doubt the results of the first. Moreover, it is not only the number of businesses and employees who have access to e-mail in their workplace which is increasing daily but the number of messages.

Table 1.1. Number of e-mail accounts and users (2015–2019)

In millions	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Number of e-mail addresses	4353	4626	4920	5243	5594
Number of e-mail users	2586	2672	2760	2849	2943

1.2.2. A growth that is not slowing down

According the company Radicati [RAD 15], there were a little more than 2.5 billion users of e-mail in 2015, and this figure ought to be a little less than 3 billion between now and 2019 (see Table 1.1). If it should be noted that the increase in social networks and instant messaging tools contributes to the growth of the number of e-mail users – as you need an e-mail address to access these services – the number of professional e-mails is thriving. Yet according to this same study by Radicati, out of the 205 billion sent or received mails, 112 billion will be professional e-mails, this proportion should be maintained in the coming years, with almost 129 billion professional mails sent or received in 2019, out of an estimated total of 246 billion (see Table 1.2).

Table 1.2. Daily message traffic (2015–2019)

In billions	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Number of e-mails sent/received each day	205.6	215.3	225.3	235.6	246.5
Number of e-mails sent/received by businesses daily	112.5	116.4	120.4	124.5	128.8
Number of messages sent/received daily by customers	93.1	98.9	104.9	111.1	117.1

1.2.3. A perfectly adapted tool for a business in touch

The e-mail craze is not random. It is no wonder that electronic communications, and particularly e-mail, have significantly modified the methods of management, organization and work, and that they have improved the performances of companies and of the economy in general. Would globalization of the economy have been possible without the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and of the worldwide communication networks? The answer is: unequivocally not! A communication tool which is simple, fast, and not costly has become inevitable in modern business for all types of communication, internal and external, from the circulation of a simple memo to the launch of vast promotional campaigns, aimed at the public or a network of already established customers. And the customers have not been outdone. In 2015, according to Radicati (Table 1.2), customers and consumers will have d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title
• Copyright
• Acknowledgements
• Preamble
• Introduction
• 1 Electronic Mail
• 2 From Role to Identity
• 3 Roles and the Digital World
• 4 Challenges in Communication
• 5 Defining Spam
• 6 A Lack of Ethics that Disrupts E-mail Communication
• 7 The Deadly Sins of Electronic Mail
• 8 The Venial Sins of Electronic Mail
• 9 Exposure to Spam and Protection Strategies.
• Concluding Recommendations
• Bibliography
• Index
• End User License Agreement