Antispam Registry Proposed

WASHINGTON -- A coalition of e-mail service providers plans to develop registries intended to separate the legitimate bulk e-mailers from the spammers, in the latest in a series of recent antispam efforts.

The Email Service Provider Coalition (ESPC), formed by the Network Advertising Initiative, counts among its members 30 companies that provide outsourced e-mail services or Internet advertising services for a variety of companies, including DoubleClick and Advertising.com. The group on Wednesday announced the "blueprint" for a registry standard to launch in six to nine months.

It will focus on a certification process for companies sending out bulk e-mail. Vendors who pass the certification will get a sort of seal of approval.

Sift the Senders

The effort is intended as an alternative to current blacklists and spam filters that sometimes ban legitimate vendors, said Hans Peter Brondmo, senior vice president for strategy for Digital Impact, who chairs the ESPC technology working group.

High-volume e-mailers would get a score something like a credit rating, based on numbers of customer complaints, how many times people have to unsubscribe and other factors, Brondmo said. High-volume e-mailers will submit to performance ratings as a way to remain on the registry. The coalition hopes the registry will serve as a whitelist that ensures e-mail users of legitimate e-mailers.

The certification process for the registry, code-named Project Lumos, will require bulk e-mailers to reveal their identities. It proposes imposing a standard system for including all sender information in mail headers, and an authentication process that provides a secure proof of identity in the SMTP header.

The registry would say, "Here's who I am, I'll be that person tomorrow, I'm willing to adhere to certain best practices," Brondmo said.

Backup Plan

Brondmo acknowledged that companies sending unsolicited commercial e-mail may not want to be part of the registry, but that's when blacklists and spam filters should be unleashed, he said.

"We believe a properly administered blacklist would likely be a part of the future," he added.

The problem with blacklists and spam filters right now is the confusion on how legitimate e-mailers can stay off those lists, or get off once they're put on, Brondmo said. Project Lumos will bring "trust, transparency and accountability into the fabric of e-mail," he said.

The coalition's blueprint isn't intended to replace legislative efforts to counter spam, such as a bill re-introduced in the U.S. Senate earlier in April, Brondmo said. Leaders of at least one other antispam effort, launched by ActiveState, have promoted technology options over legislative efforts. Brondmo said he believes there's a place for several antispam efforts.

"I don't think it's one or the other," Brondmo said. "There's a technology dimension, there's a best-practices dimension, and there's a legislative dimension. They're all interconnected."