About 80 per cent of Internet users here spend close to 10 minutes a day just clearing unsolicited e-mail, or spam, a day.

This was the finding of a survey of 500 Internet users, and very few of them thought the volume of spam they received was going to decrease.

Even though free Web-based accounts or those with Internet service providers (ISPs) provide spam-filtering services, filters at the corporate level appear to work better.

Or so said the majority, or 278 respondents, who received more unsolicited e-mail in their home accounts than office accounts. The research could not specify if the home accounts were free Web-based ones or those with ISPs.

These findings were released yesterday by Forbes Research, which was commissioned by Symantec, an Internet security company.

Forbes Research is a social and marketing research firm with no links to Forbes magazine.

The survey revealed curious numbers such as how 75 per cent thought spam was harmful, yet 54.7 per cent had a hard time defining spam.

Mr Ross Wilson, Symantec's senior regional director for Asia Pacific, said this clearly showed how subjective the issue was, as 'one man's spam is another's advertisement opportunity'.

The United States is responsible for 90 per cent of all spam, he said.

According to a report in The New York Times yesterday, an anti-spam law will come into effect in the US from next year. Rules will be set for all commercial e-mail.

While there are no specific anti-spam laws here, Singapore is looking into anti-spam measures, with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) engaging ISPs in the review, a spokesman told The Straits Times yesterday.

'IDA will share its findings once its review is completed,' she added.

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