A typical user's interaction with messages received over a network is ever increasing. For example, the user may send and receive hundreds of emails and text messages in a given day. These messages may provide a wide variety of functionality. However, as the functionality that is available to the user has continued to increase, so too have the malicious uses of this functionality.
One such example is unsolicited commercial messages, otherwise known as “spam”. Spam is typically thought of as a message that is sent to a large number of recipients, such as to promote a product or service. Because sending such messages generally costs the sender little or nothing, “spammers” have developed techniques which send the equivalent of junk mail to as many users as can be located. Even though a minute fraction of the recipients may actually desire the described product or service, this minute fraction may be enough to offset the minimal costs in sending the spam. Consequently, spammers are responsible for communicating a vast number of unwanted and irrelevant messages which may hinder a user's interaction with messages of interest.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds