Associated Press

As Internet users find themselves flooded with unwanted e-mail, state officials are joining the fight against what some see as intrusive marketing.

As part of the effort, they're working to make sure consumers have better control over their personal information when it's given out to companies.

Michigan Attorney General Jennifer Granholm this month struck back at Ameritech, issuing a consumer alert to warn that the phone company will share customer data with companies owned by its corporate parent, SBC Communications Inc.

The Ameritech warning is part of a campaign by Granholm and other state attorneys general to raise new barriers between marketers and their targets.

``The issues of privacy are changing in the 21st century, and we need the law as a voice of protection to catch up with them,'' Genna Gent, a spokeswoman for Granholm, told The Detroit News for a Sunday story.

``This area is a little gray right now, and it's gray in favor of the businesses,'' she said.

SBC has said it will share billing information only with companies it owns, and customers who don't want their files shared may request that it be withheld.

Tom Michael's Web site lets customers see new homes in hot development areas and then contact him by e-mail.

Unfortunately, that opens Michael to a modern scourge: spam, as unsolicited e-mail ads are called.

``They just waste everybody's time,'' said Michael, who works from his home. ``I have to delete so many of them that I worry I've deleted an important message, too.''

It is easier than ever these days to collect and distribute customer information.

Moe Bashir, owner of Wizard Computers Inc. in Livonia, can guess why his business e-mail box gets clogged with unwanted mail.

He gives his e-mail address to his distributors, who pass it along to manufacturers, who pass it along ``to who knows,'' Bashir said.

At the same Livonia shop, employee Brett Mootsey does everything he can to limit what lands in his inbox.

``I'm very protective about what I do with my e-mail address,'' said Mootsey, who asks friends not to share it.

He even fills in a bogus address on some online forms.

That type of evasion should be of great concern to the industry, one scholar warns.

Direct marketing can present more than an annoyance, and spam, junk mail and pesky calls have their costs.

Businesses ``have the baseball bat and from the consuming side, we're the ball -- constantly being hit,'' said Mike Bernacchi, a marketing professor at the University of Detroit Mercy.