THE war against spam took a curious turn on 5 May with an announcement by Microsoft that it is to create “whitelists” of what it calls “legitimate marketers”, who will be allowed to send unsolicited emails that bypass the company’s spam filters. The move makes it likely that spam will probably never be entirely eliminated.
The scheme asks marketers to agree to a set of rules regarding privacy and to purchase a bond worth between $400 and $10,000. In return, Microsoft will ensure that the marketers’ messages bypass Hotmail and MSN’s stringent spam filters. Marketers who flout the rules will…
