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Re: Anonymity use cases

2004-10-08 17:20:55

At 04:45 PM 10/8/2004 -0400, Andrew Newton wrote:

On Oct 7, 2004, at 5:35 PM, Jim Fenton wrote:
Can you elaborate the use cases that need anonymity?  It isn't that I 
disagree with this point, but that I just don't know what you are talking 
about.  I'm sitting here thinking, "As a receiver, I don't care to receive 
email from anonymous sources."

Some (hypothetical) examples I can think of are:

- An email crime-tips hotline
- A corporate or Government whistle-blower hotline

Though I don't doubt their utility, my concern is that the same mechanism that 
would allow anonymity for these users would also work for spammers.

We do need to make sure that we don't leave an opening for spammers.  But there 
is a difference between:
    (1) An anonymous user who uses a valid address they're authorized to use
    (2) Someone who uses an email address that isn't valid
    (3) Someone who uses someone else's email address without authorization

Ideally, I would like to allow (1) and prohibit (2) and (3) (or tag them with 
warnings, perhaps).


- Any of the other myriad of other reasons that people use anonymous 
remailers today.

However, remailers allow a user to use the identity of another.  This is fine, 
and I don't think anything special needs to be done to support it.

Agreed.  I was referring to the fact that the motives for the use of remailers 
may also motivate anonymous mail.

-Jim


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