Is Your Email Address Public Data?

quackking writes "Are email addresses public records, accessible under public open-access laws in America? Up in Maine they are fighting about just this issue ..."

Comments

one solution

[zatz]

If the average netizen had access to a more capable mail server, there would be a technical solution to this. One which I already employ when I need to give an email address to someone I don't trust not to or resell it.

Generate a random string to use as a mailbox name. Forward that to your real inbox. Use procmail or MTA rules to bounce any messages it receives which are not from the expected sender, or just remove the mapping entirely when it outlives its usefulness. Certainly this process could be made more automatic and user friendly if there was demand for it.

This also allows for greater anonymity, although you could still require recipients of the city newsletter to give real names with their special-purpose addresses. Who lives in the city is already relatively easy to determine regardless.