Consider the following scenario. You get a phone call from a key client or a distraught family member: "Didn't you get my email?"

They are clearly upset that you "ignored" them. They see evidence that they are not your priority. You are unresponsive. You don't care. Or maybe, your spam filter was doing just a bit too good a job.

Welcome to the world of Type I errors.

A Type I error is generally called a false positive: Your good email is flagged as spam and gets filtered into your junk mail folder. A Type II error is generally called a false negative: Spam is not detected as spam, and gets through.

Because of the volume of spam, we seem to be on a cops-and-robbers treadmill of stronger spam filters, which leads to more clever spammers, which leads to even stronger spam filters, and so on and so on.

Was it a programmer who made the decision that it was better to have a clean inbox (with a bit of spam that gets through)? Or maybe a group of marketers decided that the effectiveness of their spam control program was best evidenced by a mostly clean inbox?

In both cases, this "no-spam inbox" policy made an inherently dangerous assumption: that it was better to miss a few emails (because they were caught by the spam filter) than delete a few spams from your inbox. This assumption may not be right for you.

This week's action plan: Set up an alert for a weekly review of your junk mail folder in your calendar. Rescuing nonspam email from the junk mail folder will make a dramatic difference — to the person who sent the email.

Looking for more? Ask your technology department if they are blocking so-called spam at the network edge, and if so, how you might periodically review anything that is addressed to you.