New Legislation May Help Keep Unwanted Emails Out Of Your Inbox

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork)-- Too many photos on Facebook. Too many mindless tweets. What about those massive amounts of unwanted emails?

There may soon be changes in the law to protect "unsubscribers" and make the opt-out process speedy.

Many New Yorkers are fed up with email inboxes full of content they don't want.

"This email is telling me I made $2,300 in an account I don't even have... It's a waste of my time," John Mullen told CBS2's Jennifer McLogan.

Some say they feel they are being chased online at all hours by commercial companies.

College student Sean Bates wonders if "unsubscribing" confirms his email to strangers in cyberspace.

"It just happened to me over the weekend. I had to unsubscribe from a lot of campaign emails and I was wondering, why do they need my name, my email address?" Bates said.

Why do companies insist on doing this? Hofstra University Professor Joel Evans has some ideas.

"Because it costs almost nothing. Unlike advertising, they have computer software where they can simultaneously send out millions of these messages," Evans told CBS2.

Evans said companies are required to make it easy to "opt out." But it isn't. It has been 13 years since the first and only law to block unwanted and unsolicited commercial emails was passed. It comes with a lengthy six-step process.

"This process I am explaining here, perfectly legal , under the 'Can Spam Act of 2003.' These companies aren't doing anything wrong," U.S. Representative Kathleen Rice said.

Rice said the law needs to be amended.

"This process should be streamlined and that is what the 'unsubscribe-from-all' act will do," she explained.

Her new bill, which was to be introduced on Friday, could cut the "unsubscribe" time from 20 minutes to 20 seconds.

Companies must also permanently remove the email address within 10 business days, and not sell it. The new legislation may also make it more difficult for commercial companies to "phish" for emails.