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Re: [ietf-smtp] [Shutup] Proposed Charter for the "SMTP Headers Unhealthy To User Privacy" WG (fwd)

2015-12-02 12:23:36


-----Original Message-----
From: ietf-smtp [mailto:ietf-smtp-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] On Behalf Of 
Ted
Lemon
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2015 1:03 PM
To: shutup(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Cc: ietf-smtp(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: [ietf-smtp] [Shutup] Proposed Charter for the "SMTP Headers
Unhealthy To User Privacy" WG (fwd)

Wednesday, Dec 2, 2015 12:40 PM John Levine wrote:
You can kind of tell where I am from my mail headers, but since my
name and address and phone number are in the phone book, it's hard to
imagine what the damage would be.

The damage is that there are quite a few John Levines in the world.   If you
say something that triggers someone's desire to harass you, they will be able
to use your IP address to determine that it is the John Levine who lives in
Trumansburg who offended them, and then they can just google "John
Levine Trumansburg" to dox or swat you.   This is _precisely_ the problem
with revealing your IP address.   It took me about ten minutes to get your
home address, and that's because I don't have any practice.   Without the IP
address, I would have had no chance of figuring out _which_ John Levine to
target with my notional swatting or pizza delivery.  It would have taken <1
minute to find your street address except that you did a good job of chaffing
by using a P.O. Box.


It took me 20 seconds using google and no IP Addresses were harmed in the 
testing - https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=john+levine. BTW John, 
congratulations on your page ranking. 

I've refrained from getting into this conversation but increasingly my sense is 
that Ted has a solution that is seeking a problem.

Mike

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