The web for me is a hobby where standards and best practices are daily bread. Security is a concern that everybody must be aware of its details for IT in general, and the web in particular, to be a safer place. My life, on the other hand, is that of a regular Lebanese citizen where politics and social issues are discussed on a daily basis. I hope you enjoy reading my blog and make sure to drop me a comment about any topic you find interesting.

Today, I received an email from Mr. Ziad Baroud, the Minister of Internal Affairs, asking me to check my listing on the DGPS website. While the majority would like the fact that Mr. Baroud is using a one-to-one communication method to reach as much Lebanese citizens as possible, I did not like the fact that Mr. Baroud is encouraging spammers to send out such emails.

Lebanon is already a spammed country. Tens of companies send out SPAM / JUNK emails every day. We all nag and complain from such emails and spend 20-30% of our email time identifying and deleting SPAM / JUNK emails before starting to actually reading legitimate emails.

It would have been nice if Mr. Baroud had:

• Avoided spamming me by sending me an email that I did not ask to receive (this is what SPAMming is after all)
• Used a more modern e-Marketing tool to spread out the word. A banner on a few websites (Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Tayyar, Yellow Pages of Lebanon, etc.) could have done the same effect if not better since it wouldn't be dropped into the JUNK folder like what happened with this message. Of course the banner would have cost him a little bit more but I don't believe that budget is a problem in this case.
• Used this case as an exercise to help him identify Lebanese SPAMMING companies and warn them to stop providing this service.
• Used this article as an alert to start pushing an Anti-SPAM rule / law into the Lebanese system.

I would love to see a minister / parliament member / president / anybody in the Lebanese government starting to handle rules and regulations related to Technology. Digital signatures and Anti-SPAM rules are just the beginning.

Why should this be considered as a spam Vix? He is simply helping the people avoid mistakes related to wrong names on their voting lists. I believe spam is a relative thing. Although i receive many spam emails every day, some of these emails is interesting to me and is worth the headache of having to filter others out while staying informed about interesting stuff.

100% true Vix. Ziad Baroud is an excellent minister but I believe that he lacks knowledge in the IT world rules and regulations especially at the international level. i think he lacks a proper IT consultant :P what do you think? can he use your services???

i think it is DGPS behind this. i don't think Ziad Baroud will ask to send such an email. what you are saying is true though and he should point this out to whoever did this.