Forty billion marketing e-mails! That's about six pieces for every person on the planet.
Who those brands are--two of the three largest banks in America, its biggest drugstore chain and supermarket, the administrator of the SAT, among dozens of others--has resurrected public fears around Internet-based commerce. Who has my information? What are they doing with it? Do I really need--or even read--e-mail from my supermarket?
Here's what's new:
It's probably best not to click through links in e-mail from any commercial enterprise, or dial any phone number in an e-mail either. Go to the company's Web page, use a link you have bookmarked, or get out the Yellow Pages, pick up the telephone, and call.
The data haul includes some vulnerable folks: High school students ( was affected), the unemployed (Robert Half International, ditto), retirees (TIAA-CREF, ditto) and people who wear alligator shirts (, ).