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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
I thank SpamArrest for replying, but the problem with SpamArrest's argument is this: People who want to send mail to their customers must type in a keyword to verify that they're human and not a spambot. But nowhere on that page does SpamArrest admit that if you do it, you'll be getting spammed yourself. Even after you type in the word, there is no such notice, and I couldn't find a clear and unambiguous mention in the privacy policy. Here's an example of the sender-verification scheme: http://spamarrest.com/a?68689800:53525 What SpamArrest is doing is similar to Microsoft spamming everyone who ever sent mail to your hotmail.com account, or AOL spamming everyone who emailed an aol.com account, and so on. But it's even worse because SpamArrest -- as a purported anti-spam service whose website warns users of the "exponentially increasing problem of spam" -- should know better. Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-04455.html -Declan --- From: "Daryn Nakhuda" <daryn@spamarrest.com> To: <declan@well.com> Subject: Re: Spam Arrest does appear to be resorting to... spamming Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 10:36:16 -0800 Declan - I'm not going to attempt to justify our marketing efforts with you; However I do want to provide you with the following facts to debunk some of the rumors I've seen. 1. Every person who got this email from us has either sent an email to one of our customers, or been added to one of our customer's whitelist explicitly. There was no dictionary attack. 2. We complied with both our own privacy policy, as well as industry-accepted rules for sending email; such as 1. a valid return address, 2. a functioning opt-out link, and 3. a clear subject line including the advertising prefix "ADV:", which people who have spam filters can look for and filter. 3. Our privacy policy is at http://spamarrest.com/privacy.jsp . You can click the link and read it without any fear (in regards to Bill Ries-Knight's warning). We do not use any stealthy means of capturing your email address; you have to type in it, or send an email to one of our customers. 4. We are a legitimate spam prevention service. Our website is not a false front for a spamming business. Our customers prefer our sender-based verification model to other content-filtering methods, and find our service very successful in stopping the junk from entering their inbox. 5. I know people fear the opt-out link, but I want to reassure you and your readers that clicking on this link is 1. safe, and 2. the only sure way to remove your address from receiving future spam arrest promotions. Thanks, Daryn Spam Arrest ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------