[Mimedefang] Off topic: Ethics of deleteing spam

[John Mason Jr.]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mimedefang-admin at lists.roaringpenguin.com 
> [mailto:mimedefang-admin at lists.roaringpenguin.com] On Behalf 
> Of Alan Madill
> Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 9:01 PM
> To: mimedefang at lists.roaringpenguin.com
> Subject: [Mimedefang] Off topic: Ethics of deleteing spam
> 
> 
> We are losing customers to our competitors because of spam.  The 
> customer claims that they know someone who uses ISP xyz and 
> they get very little spam.  They have to be filtering it.
> 
> We currently change the subject to [SPAM?]... or [SPAM!]... 
> depending on the score from SpamAssassin and have told our 
> lusers how to filter it or delete it with their email client 
> but it still uses 
> bandwidth and it is a hassle for them to set that up.
> 
> We would like to just delete it or bounce it but we are worried about 
> the ethical and legal issues of doing so.
> 
> What is everyone else doing?
> 


I run CanIT for a small company, and I told employees that if they tell
me they requested it it comes in, otherwise if it is caught by CanIt it
will be bounced, although I will do a quick visual scan for potentially
work related material, especially as I have CanIt set to hold many free
mail providers not sent from their own domain.

As an ISP you have to sducate your end users, so they understand when a
friends email gets bounced. The reality is that most will not notice
until an important email gets bounced and someone takes the time to use
an alternative route for delivery, then it is a crisis so you have to
have educated them to understand the issues. Another thing to consider
is things like stream by receiptent, so that users could make the
choice, based on their own level of comfort.

In the end you must make the end user a supporter of spam rejection and
educate them to the risks


John