Danny's Weblog

My solution to the spam problem

1. SMTP servers are reconfigured so that instead of sending the entirety of a user's email, they send only a short notification, ie a standard mail header followed by a body which consists of only a hyperlink to the content. The content itself is stored on a webserver local to the SMTP server.

2. The link is just some large number – large enough to provide security so that nobody who doesn't get the notification can guess the number and read the mail.

3. Advantages:

-1. Doesn't require much if any reconfiguration for most users -2. Straightforward implementation at the server end -3. Doesn't require a trusted third party (unlike public key schemes etc; no need to deal with Verisign ik-thoo) -4. Even if the spammer sends mail, it's relatively small (only a header, say 1 kB) -5. All emails have to be traceable to a website -6. All other emails (ie larger than a header) can be quietly dropped -7. Unwanted email (that mailing list you can't be bothered to unsubscribe from, the uncle who keeps forwarding long unfunny jokes, etc etc) doesn't waste bandwidth

4. Disadvantages

-1. A pain for people like me who still read email in a text client -2. Would allow spammers to send *many more* emails, because they would be shorter. -3. The sender can always detect when the mail is received.

Clearly this solution is going to be imperfect initially. But quite soon, because it forces spammers to provide a traceable website address, it would make law enforcement much easier.

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