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Bulk E-mail protocols and tagging |
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The "Spam" problem has arisen because parties wishing to push a message or product are creating mailing lists and cheaply doing bulk mailing to them without asking (and usually against the will of) the people put on the lists.
One proposed solution is to define a way to describe attributes of bulk mail, and mail from unknown parties. This method can be used to define a protocol to let mail servers express what sort of mail they will accept, or tags to go on mail describing how it is sent.
This is a long term solution since it requires changing mail agents and mail sending tools as well. Other short term solutions will be tried first. |
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In particular the attributes proposed here for tagging are: |
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| 1. The number of expected recipients for the message. |
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| 2. The sender-recipient relationship; namely, whether the sender is a stranger to the recipient, or personally known, or the message was solicited. |
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| These two attributes say nothing about the content of the message. Tags about content (as proposed in some laws) are a poor idea. The problem is unwanted bulk mail. It is bulk mail that should be identified. |
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| Other things might be tagged, but these two attributes are enough to identify unsolicited bulk mail from strangers, and thus provide the tools to deal with the problem. |
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How to use them |
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Preferably the tags would be used in a protocol as described below, allowing mail servers to filter mail according to the attributes above. However, because most mail is relayed through several sites with the "MX" system, it is not usually possible for the mail server that first receives a message to know the policies of the final recipient. As such, the tags would also need to exist within E-mail headers directly.
There already is, in fact, an E-mail header called "precedence" which can have values like "junk" and "bulk." This is primarily to assist mail servers in assigning priority to messages. Its use is becoming more rare, and it is not sufficient, even when correctly assigned, to tell apart the types of mail one wants to tell apart. In their most basic form, mail transport agents and clients might be programmed to filter or redirect mail that had certain attributes. Mail would go into different destination mailboxes or "mail folders" based on these and other attributes.
This ability is already common in mail tools. Today in fact many mail tools have put in pattern based filters that can redirect or delete mail that contains certain "spam signature" strings in the text or subject. Should such protocols be defined and come into use, we can expect mail tools to very quickly adopt them with nice user interfaces. |
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Opt-out Protocols |
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Preferably as noted, these tags might form the basis of an "opt-out" protocol. Just as today people can place a "no soliciting" sign on their gate, some wish to put up such a "sign" on their mail server. To do that they need a protocol, to say in formal computerese, just what is welcome and what is not.
The mail protocol, known as ESMTP, could be extended to allow the recipient to express desires before mail is even sent. This is primarily in the interests of efficiency, to avoid having the recipient's mail server take the load of receiving messages that are undesired and will be discarded anyway. It's also a favour to the sender from an efficiency standpoint.
(Because with today's protocols the mail server receiving a message may be a "mail exchanger" that will relay to the actual recipient, header tags would still be needed for when the filtering decision needs to be made further down the chain. Eventually systems would be made smarter so it can always be made on the spot.)
It's also probable that servers would "bounce" mail that was blocked due to tagging decisions. This bounce might be taken as an order to send no more mail (for a named period of time [TTL]) of the type bounced. Any mailer who constantly attempted to send such mail after being notified might be guilty of a denial of service attack. |
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Making them work |
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| There are several levels at which a tagging system could be applied. The central question, of course, is how to make people who are already abusing E-mail put tags on their messages that may cause their messages to be declared 2nd class. With paper mail, senders gladly put bulk-rate postage on their mail, thus tagging it as bulk, because they save money. This incentive is not present for E-mail tags. |
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| There are several answers to this problem, from voluntary systems all the way to laws. Here are some. |
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Voluntary Use |
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Surprisingly, many spammers would be happy to comply. In fact, several of them, in an effort to gain some respect, have proposed tagging systems of their own, even content-based ones. Tagging will indeed give them an answer to their detractors. Many of them would even promote it, and push users to get filter software by declaring in their messages, "Don't want to get these postings? We put on Bulk-Tags! Get mail software that uses them."
They'll do this because some want to make a serious business out of bulk E-mail, and they figure this will help them. And indeed, it will, because at first (and perhaps for some time) many people will not have filtering tools. And some of them are quite willing to lose as audience those who would block their mail. Not all, however, as we know there are some who will go to lengths to get around blocking tools. |
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Trademark Protection |
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The Bulk-Tag could be given a name which can be (or already is) trademarked. Like the TrustE mark, whose use indicates compliance with a code of privacy ethics, or the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" which requires endorsement from a magazine.
This mark might be licenced for use to all members of the public who agree to follow the rules of the tag. Use without following the rules would be a violation, which could cause a lawsuit. |
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