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Human-Powered Spam Filtering

Posted by Hemos on from the interesting-concept dept.

arturs writes "A company called eProvisia started an unusal business: they filter out spam not by using complicated algorithms, but human beings... It costs around $20/year - is the war against spam over?" It's an interesting idea - the privacy concerns are big of course, but how would this stack up to, say SpamAssassin or a suite like Barracuda's Spam firewall. We tested the Barracuda device - great integration of OSS software, with a nice interface. Update: 09/20 15:12 GMT by J : Corrected price of Spam Eradicator.

8 of 343 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Buzzword Bingo by Nos. · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No kidding, that second paragraph (well, actually sentence) has high buzz word content yet actually only says, we do anti-spam. I have a feeling marketing and technical don't agree on much at this company.

  2. Business model? by Empiric · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "24 hours a day" * 30 days/month = 720 hours

    $20 per month / 720 hours = about 3 cents an hour.

    Since they say they begin "manually reviewing, hand-picking and approving important correspondence", how does this work? To pay someone $6/hour, they'd need to be reviewing at least 200 mailboxes simultaneously. My confidence level of their accuracy under these circumstances would be considerably -lower- than a software solution.

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    ~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
  3. hilarious by alatesystems · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Look at this about page.

    Im going to include their footnotes on that pge in parentheses and bold.

    Privately funded in 1993, now with customers in 40 countries(Not all currently recognized by UN) and over $67 million(Palmyra Atoll dollars) in cash reserves, the company experienced a phenomenal growth

  4. LLC Companies by jeffs72 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, LLC's are the smart way to do a partnership. In a partnership, all principles enjoy equal responsibility for mishaps. In LLC's, all principles enjoy shared responsibility.

    I guess the best way to sum it up would be to quote my Business Legal Environment professor: "...and I hope that now you all have a clear understanding of partnerships. Now let me give you a word of advice, never form one."


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  5. Filtering using spelling checker... by baywulf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why can't we use spelling checkers to filter spam? It seems all the spam now uses mispelled words and numbers in words to trip other filtering methods. So measure percent words mispelled or with numbers in them and above a particular threshold consider it spam.

  6. Guaranteed? by bluntmanspam · · Score: 4, Interesting
    From the home page (in BIG H1 font):
    For the first time ever: 100% reliability in combating spam. Guaranteed.
    But from the first point on the TOS page:
    (1) Warranties and waivers. You understand that there are no guarantees, either expressed or implied, regarding the accuracy, confidentiality or availability of the service.
    Hmmm...
  7. It gets better... by alakon · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Screams IP theft.
    (1) Warranties and waivers. You understand that there are no guarantees, either expressed or implied, regarding the accuracy, confidentiality or availability of the service. eProvisia LCC may choose to share any information acquired in the course of providing its services with other entities, and may, at its sole discretion and based on this information, take whichever actions the company, its affiliates, subsidiaries, or representatives, consider to be appropriate. You henceforth void your reasonable expectation of privacy, and your constitutional rights to a fair and speedy trial.

    Not only that, but the contract is "governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Uninhabited Sovereign Territory of Palmyra Atoll, ..."

  8. I considered starting such a business... by Flyboy+Connor · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...for a brief moment.

    I immediately realised such a business would never thrive, because:

    • Businesses would never allow an outside firm to scan potentially sensitive emails.
    • Even for humans it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish spam from real mail, especially if you are not an insider to the business.
    • It could not be supported by an automated mechanism, because you could be sued if you would filter out real mail as spam, even if it happens rarely.
    • If it takes about 10 seconds to scan a piece of mail, any human could scan a maximum of about 300 mails an hour. Since this is the amount of spam I receive in a single day, I have to pay at least an hour's fee per day to scan my mail, or probably something like $3000 a month. Nobody will pay this.

    Yes, it's a hoax. Which could be immediately deduced from the fact that it is not viable business (especially with the price they quote).