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Re: [Asrg] The "Human-Shield" effect; the need for end-user control

2003-03-23 11:43:04
At 6:24 PM -0800 3/22/03, william(_at_)elan(_dot_)net wrote:
No, I was thinking of of more complex scenario then just standartized xml
filter list. While I agree that current spam filters implementations often
use different methods for representing and getting rule set, I do not

I understand. It's just that it's a harder job for filter software to integrate with it, and there's a tendency to not focus on things which make it easier for your clients to switch to a competitor :-). But yes. I think it's possible, and a standard in that area would be good.

I would propose however, that if we're going to specify such a thing--let's start on the side of the architecture that everyone else seems to leave until last. Namely--how does it handle authentication and security. Keep in mind that such a protocol would possibly also run over the WAN, as it would provide a way for third-party filtering services to manage your mail filtering, while you control the rules. (Or vice versa--you do the filtering, and the third party keeps your spam filtering rules up-to-date.)

And I was thinking futher along the line of creating standard header lines
on what filter has been used (for client MUA to know in standard format)
and in order to allow for distributed filtering systems and removing
necessity of applying same filter twice.

That gets harder. Products like ours and SpamAssassin may apply hundreds of rules, and what is far more important than which rule fires, is how the combination of results is weighted. If you are specific to the point of "we checked for this string" then you have too much data. And if you're general to the level of "we checked for strings" then you haven't really said anything of use to the next filter in the line. (I'm also not a fan of adding lots of new headers--but I think this has problems even before we get to that.)
--
Kee Hinckley
http://www.puremessaging.com/        Junk-Free Email Filtering
http://commons.somewhere.com/buzz/   Writings on Technology and Society

I'm not sure which upsets me more: that people are so unwilling to accept
responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate
everyone else's.
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