Spammers
Civil libertarians argue that a spammer isn't quite the same level of ethical troglodyte as a hacker. That difference becomes academic, though, when you receive your twentieth “HOT XXX WEBSITES!!!” email in one day. Whether or not you lump spammers in the same category as hackers, it's a safe bet that you'd rather not be bothered by either of them. Protecting your privacy is an important part of Internet safety.
Spammers have a lot in common with hackers:
They target you with questionable tactics.
They snoop on you when you don't know it.
They use all that data to build a profile of you.
Targeting
Spammers get your email address from many different sources. The most above-board method is from you explicitly giving it to someone. When you ...
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