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Microsoft Will Sell Whitelist Services For Hotmail

Posted by timothy on from the get-what-you-pay-for dept.

Ec|ipse writes "Looks like Microsoft has found another way to make money, this time from spam. Microsoft has adopted a "whitelist" program (Bonded Sender by IronPort) which will allow marketers to pay Microsoft so that they are included on a special whitelist, guaranteeing uninteruptable delivery of their messages to Hotmail and MSN users. You can catch the full article at Excite. I especially like the nice naming for spammers, calling them 'marketers' sounds so much more legitimate." mgibbs adds "Hopefully the $20K fine that results from abuse of this system is enough to deter spammers."

5 of 380 comments (clear)

  1. And then by GarbanzoBean · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And then they will charge users extra for "adv free" service. Oh wait, I thought they were talking about phone companies.

  2. following Yahoo's footsteps by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yahoo has been doing this for a LONG time.

    they have their "spam" filtering yet there are types of spam that will not go away as they have "special" spam from their "partners" that will NEVER EVER hit their filtering rules for spam.

    I am betting that ALL free email sites will do this within this year.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  3. Do any journalists know how to use english? by hiroko · · Score: 5, Insightful
    mixed metaphors...
    allow legitimate marketers to thread the gauntlet of spam filters
    • run the gauntlet
    • thread the needle
    choose one.
    D.
    --
    Just because you can't, doesn't mean you shouldn't.
  4. The article is unclear by Croaker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The original poster assumed that Microsoft is opening the door to spammers. What is unsaid in the article is if these e-mails were actually solicited.

    I could see that legit ads (i.e. you definitely signed up to recieve them) might be tossed out with the huge amount of spam. What Microsoft *might* be doing here is saying "OK, you say you are opt-in, we'll let your stuff through, but we're gonna take a bite out of you if you are lying to us."

    Unfortunately, the author of the article didn't bother to state exactly what the rules are that Microsoft is imposing. Roast the journalist, not Microsoft (at least, not yet).

  5. Re:This is a BOND, not a payment by Jaywalk · · Score: 5, Insightful
    They're still spamming.
    No, they're not. It's bulk email, but it's not unsolicited. Looking into my junk mail folder -- the one that picks up the bulk email -- I see updates from ParentCenter.com, HomeDepot.com and PublicKnowledge.org. These are all organizations that I signed up for to send me regular updates, so it's not unsolicited email. But the company spam filter doesn't know that, so it sweeps them into my junk mail folder along with the Viagra and penis enlargement crap. If these companies were on a white list of companies that post a bond $20k against a promise to only send "opt-in" bulk email, the mail filter could be programmed to assume they're legitimate and I wouldn't have to keep checking to see how much legitimate mail I'm losing.
    --
    ===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====