Re: Thinking outside the box

On Mar 17, 2013, at 7:28, Martijn Grooten <[email protected]> wrote:

>> Once you have secure private delivery of messages using
>> public/private keys, you don't need to create a reputation system to
>> decide what to deliver. Each recipient will have a personal contacts
>> list and if the sender is not in that list the message won't be
>> opened. This starts the new dream system with zero receipt of spam
>> and therefore zero profit for spammers thus no spam. Every message
>> can be received and delivered to the users messaging agent.
> 
> So that's kind of what sites like Facebook and Twitter already do with
> direct messages: you can only send them to someone who has added you as
> their friend or is following you.
> 
> It's true that would stop the bulk of the spam being sent.
> 
> It's also fairly trivial to build something like that on top of the
> existing SMTP infrastructure.
> 
> It doesn't prevent spam sent via compromised accounts though.

A compromised account will only be able to send messages to current contacts. When you receive one you flag that account as compromised and check it perhaps once a day to see if it's been secured. Since they are on your contact list, you probably have an alternate contact so you can call them up to offer sympathies and perhaps help get their digital life straightened out again.


> It also kills a lot of the current uses of email, which depend on more
> or less unsolicited emails being sent.

There are better solutions than unsolicited email. Many companies have already switched to using web portals for receiving communications. A portal could act as a proxy for the letter of introduction to create a new contact. Nothing says they can't continue to use email if someone wants to use it and deal with the spam problem. At least until the ISPs decide that there is so little non-spam email that it's not worth keeping the servers running.

-- Dan Oetting