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How Pervasive is ISP Outbound Email Filtering?

Posted by Zonk on from the making-me-nervous dept.

Erris writes "A member of the Baton Rouge LUG noticed that Cox checks the text of outgoing email and rejects mail containing key phrases. I was aware of forced inbox filtering that has caused problems and been abused by other ISPs in China and in the US. I've also read about forced use of ISP SMTP and outbound throttling, but did not know they outbound filtered as well. How prevalent and justified is this practice? Wouldn't it be better to cut off people with infected computers than to censor the internet?"

10 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Phrases by grcumb · · Score: 4, Funny

    Since when is giving a person advice on species "spam-like"? Maybe it's the latin I don't know.

    Cialis vincit disfunctio penilis!

    --
    Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  2. ILOVEYOU by AEton · · Score: 3, Funny

    About ten years ago, it became impossible for me to send e-mails to my girlfriend with the subject line "ILOVEYOU."

    The error message from Comcast -- something about rejection -- was pretty classic.

    --
    We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
  3. Re:What? by ZeldorBlat · · Score: 2, Funny

    I tried clicking on your link but I think my ISP is somehow blocking it.

  4. Re:Phrases by DingerX · · Score: 2, Funny

    disfunctionem erectilem, I believe, is the correct ending to your spam.

  5. Re:If you don't filter, you get blocked. by ajayrockrock · · Score: 2, Funny

    If an ISP doesn't filter their outgoing email to make sure that it's own users aren't spamming, they WILL get blocked. I'm on a super-secret anti-spam mailing list which I can't tell you about, and everybody there cheerfully admits to blocking their own users' outgoing spam. It's necessary.


    dude, spamassassin-users isn't that secret. :)
  6. Please that's not 1/2 as bad by failedlogic · · Score: 3, Funny

    My IS fil ers my o -bound pac ets to many we ites. Ju t make it har er to re d wh t I wri e. I'm a re ly a go d spell er trust me.

  7. Re:Looking further... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    So block incoming HTTP connections based on protocol, not outgoing SMTP connections based on content.

    Does this extend to other messages? Is sarcasm filtered, too? Or jokes?

    This isn't hard. If you've got a problem with X, then ban X. Don't say you have a problem with X, but ban Y, which is independent. That's just stupid.

    P.S., I've got like a ton of cocaine here at my apartment.

  8. Re:Phrases by rabiddeity · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow. That reads like a curse from Harry Potter fan fiction.

  9. Re:If you don't filter, you get blocked. by adminstring · · Score: 2, Funny

    The first rule of the super-secret anti-spam mailing list, which you have just broken, is that you do not talk about the super-secret anti-spam mailing list!

    --
    My truck is like a series of tubes.
  10. Re:Holy WTF?!? by bughunter · · Score: 3, Funny

    But never in a million years can I even remotely condone actually scanning the text of emails and rejecting ones an ISP doesn't like.

    I recommend that the phrase "Cox Blocked" be granted status as the official 'net jargon for any message blocked by an outgoing content filter.

    --
    I can see the fnords!