Do you really know what spam is?

Opinions differ widely over what actually constitutes spam email – with some users branding any email they don't want as spam, while other recognise unsolicited commercial bulk email as the inbox menace.

The majority of respondents to a silicon.com survey agreed spam emails must be unsolicited – with 37.5 per cent saying any unsolicited email is classed as spam in their opinion while 33.9 per cent said it is specifically unsolicited commercial bulk email.

But tempers appear to be getting shorter when unwanted emails are concerned and 18.5 per cent of respondents brand any email as spam when they aren't clear on exactly why they have received it.

This appears to be a common pitfall for many of the more legitimate marketers.

To the letter of the law the senders may not be spamming but in the eyes of the all-important recipients that's exactly what they are doing.

Steve Linford from SpamHaus used the example of car marketing.

"I'm interested in Land Rovers. But if I sign up for email updates on Land Rovers, or more specifically Range Rovers, parent company Ford may feel they have an existing business relationship with me and are entitled to also send me emails about the latest Ford Focus. But if I haven't specifically requested those emails then I would consider that spam," he said.

In Linford's book any unsolicited bulk email is spam and by unsolicited he means where there is any degree of separation between the email that arrives in the inbox and the request to receive emails from that source. The Labour Party controversially found itself at odds with this definition recently.

However, silicon.com reader Dr Steven Bashforth believes there is reasonable scope for related emails to other subscriptions.

He said: "My definition of spam is unsolicited email that is sent to many without consideration of me as an individual." He said he would accept marketing for related products to any service he had signed up for as long as it was targeted.

Others are even more open minded in holding back on the spam tag – but not many. Just 1.8 per cent of respondent believe spam only consists of emails which promote 'dodgy' content such as pornography or scams.

More respondents take the most hardline approach, with 7.7 per cent branding any email they do not want as spam, while a tiny put-upon minority of just 0.6 per cent said the sign that an email is spam is that it has arrived in their inbox.