At 5:26 PM -0700 4/25/02, coyo wrote:
>I was wondering though, your thoughts on the automation of both spam and
>spam filters. To me it raises the philosophical question of what it means
>for machines to read mail and thus understand it to a limited degree that
>they can categorize and classify it. It also begs the question of how much
>decision making we are going to allow machines to make.
The thing is, it's already the case that many (most?) email users get
their mail only if a machine decides it's not spam. So your question
may be a bit late.
Filtering is done through a variety of means. The basic heuristics are:
1) Rules-based. ("If it says 'Make Money Fast' in the Subject
line, it's likely to be spam", and so forth.)
2) User-informed. ("If I mistakenly reported this message
as spam, tell me why and I'll learn".) Whitelists fall
into this category, as a sort of incredibly basic
Artificial Intelligence. ("If you teach me that [EMAIL PROTECTED]
is a good guy, I'll accept email from [EMAIL PROTECTED]".)
These filters can be maintained:
1) By the individual user (Outlook or Eudora filters)
2) By the server administrator (procmail...)
<http://www.spamcon.org/directories/server-filters.shtml>
3) By a delegated third party (Brightmail, MAPS...)
<http://www.spamcon.org/directories/shared-blacklists.shtml>
Usually, there's some mixture in there. An ISP might use MAPS *and*
procmail filters; the Postini system uses a mixture of their rules
and user control; and so forth.
>This system isn't
>going to need that much handholding and I've given it the discretion of
>where to place my mail in my directory. Will I feel confident at letting
>it decide to report a piece of mail as spam? Will ISPs employ such devices
>and simply not route things that have been detected as spam? I think these
>things have more real effect and tooth than any legislation out there.
I disagree with this statement, but that's another discussion. :)
The bigger question is, "Why pursue filters, when doing so suggests
that filters are a proactive response?" No-one should have to use any
sort of filters, "smart" or not; we have the right to enjoy the
Internet without our attention, our sensibilities, and our wallets
being assaulted. And the burden should not be on us.
[/minirant]
--
Tom Geller * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * +1-415-552-2557
Media Liaison/Secretary, SpamCon Foundation <http://www.spamcon.org>
Protecting email as a medium of communications and commerce
A California non-profit organization
Become a member: <http://www.spamcon.org/membership>
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