CSC 379:Week 1, Group 6

The Ethics of Defenses against Spam

• Blocking domains
  • Domain Blocking allows specific users to be blocked from sending emails, based on their origin domain. To block a specific domain you would add that domain (or a rule applied to multiple domains) to a block list or 'black list'. Domains you wish to allow could also be added to a 'white list'.
  • Pros - highly effective at blocking spam coming from specific domains. A user could very easily block a large amount of spam by adding one 'rule'; for instance, you could easily block all foreign domains read more about how to easily block all foreign domains
  • Cons - may inadvertently block legitimate addresses. Reuse of a domain by a legitmate company that was once used by a spammer would cause that company to be blocked/blacklisted. read more
• Require users to request permission to send you an e-mail.
  • Much like domain blocking users can setup black and white lists but rather then adding entire domains to the list they would add specific email addresses to the list.
  • Pros - Guaranteed that any email you recieve is legitamte since you must approve all senders.
  • Cons - again, this may inadvertently block some legitimate addresses. For instance, someone may request permission to send you an email from an address you do not recognize or someone may not even know they need to request permission to email you.
• Charge for e-mails sent.
  • Users are charged a fee for every email sent.
  • Pros - Eliminates the purpose of spam since it will no longer be a free form of advertising. It would become very pricey for a single spammer to send out millions of emails.
  • Cons - Creates a problem for lower income users, especially those who may need to send out many emails and can not afford to. Non-profit organizations would also not be able to afford to send out mailings. Read more about how AOL plans to help non-profit organizations.
• Opt in for commercial e-mail.
  • User must specify that they would like to receive emails from a company.
  • Pros - Eliminate unsolicited commercial emails as long as its well enforced. Gives company a better target demographic because they know the user is interested. read more about advantages of opt-in mailing lists.
  • Cons - Not practical since it would be very difficult to actually enforce. Reduce potential advertising capabilities of companies.
• Domain authentication.
  • Domain authentication provides a way for the identify of a sender to be verified. This helps to prevent identity theft, fraud and spam in general. An identity is usually verified and authenticated by using some kind of a key or identification sequence.
  • Pros - would help prevent fraudulent emails, phishing, and falsifying identity.
  • Cons - If the authentication key gets compromised it may give a false sense of security to those who think the domain is authentic.
• Bounties
  • The bounty system rewards users for information leading to the capture and conviction of spammers, usually by giving them a percentage of the revenue that the spammer had acquired.
  • Pros - Money collected from spammers who have been caught can be used to catch other spammers. Give you a large policing force that could detect spammers better then a spam filter.
  • Cons - People may become money hungry and turn in non-spammers simple for a reward.
• The "Goodmail" approach. Read more about the Goodmail Approach
  • Pros - Prevent smaller spamming companies unwilling to pay fees.
  • Cons - Non-profit organization would have difficulties paying fees. Larger spamming companies could easily pay the fees and get easy access to email people. read more about issues with the Goodmail Approach