Mailman archives and email addresses
It doesn't do a complete job of obscuring email addresses in archived email.
Some email clients use the users' email address as the base of the message-id.
Mailmain doesn't obscure email addresses in the body, so if this message were archived, then mailman-archival-error@computerdatasafe.com.au would appear in the archive and be accessible to so-called harvesters of email addresses.
I would like the ability to perform a one-way transformation on _all_ email addresses.
I fear that obfuscation techniques such as "mailman-archival-error@nospam.computerdatasafe.com.au" and "mailman-archival-error at computerdatasafe dot com dot au" are becoming well-known enough that writers of the harvesting software will code round it. However, removing email addresses from lines such as "MAILER-DAEMON@Computerdatasafe.com.au said:" is safe, and as a writer to numerous lists, my intended audience is those subscribed to the list; if archival copies are less complete that's fine by me. If I want someone to write direct to me, I will spell out the email address.
Many people go to extraordinary lengths to reduce spam; the more mailing-list software does to help the better for all of is.
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On Saturday, November 30, 2002, at 06:30 PM, John Summerfield wrote:
It doesn't do a complete job of obscuring email addresses in archived email. [snip] 2. Mailmain doesn't obscure email addresses in the body, so if this message were archived, then mailman-archival-error@computerdatasafe.com.au would appear in the archive and be accessible to so-called harvesters of email addresses.
So be it. IMHO, if an email address is in the message body, it *should* be archived. It is easy for a user to render their email address relatively unrecognizable to harvesters if they so desire (indeed, this has been a common practice for years).
However, removing email addresses from lines such as "MAILER-DAEMON@Computerdatasafe.com.au said:" is safe, and as a writer to numerous lists, my intended audience is those subscribed to the list; if archival copies are less complete that's fine by me. If I want someone to write direct to me, I will spell out the email address.
Yowzer. I'm *very* against outright deletion of addresses. If you want to do this, go ahead and write your own patch for it, but please don't put this in the public release.
Many people go to extraordinary lengths to reduce spam; the more mailing-list software does to help the better for all of is.
- -1
Chris Hedemark .. Hillsborough, NC .. http://yonderway.com Homeland Security begins at home; support your Second Amendment.
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-----Original Message----- From: Chris Hedemark <chris@yonderway.com> Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 3:11 PM
It is easy for a user to render their email address relatively unrecognizable to harvesters if they so desire (indeed, this has been a common practice for years).
That is false. Case in point.... Your email address is now archived whether you wanted it public or not. You had no control over this.... none whatsoever.
-Jim P.
participants (3)
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Chris Hedemark -
Jim Popovitch -
John Summerfield