We’ve been telling you right along that when ISPs block email as spam, what they’re essentially doing is censoring your email. That’s why it’s so very important, if you’re ISP uses spam filters, that you maintain at least one non-ISP email account and use it when you absolutely, positively want to receive email without your ISP defining spam as whatever it decides spam is. Spam is really “unsolicited Commercial Email” or UCE. But ISPs cannot define UCE – so they define spam however they want.
Recently, we’ve been having trouble getting email to subscribers in Australia who use Optus as their ISP. After some investigation, and after working with our mail list hosting company, we’ve gotten to the bottom of the problem with Optus in Australia. Optus uses Trend Micro as their spam filtering software. And Trend Micro has blacklisted tens of thousands of IP addresses, including the mail list hosting company’s IP address we use, and hence one this newsletter uses. Optus is blocking tens of thousands of emails using Trend Micro’s spam filters. Optus customers – and others – need to learn how much control ISPs have over your email. Many ISPs block email based on content. And we’ve told you before, many times, this is not spam filtering – it’s censorship.
We thought we let you see how one Trend Micro defines spam – and therefore how one ISP defines spam. It’s not spam filtering – it’s censorship. If this weren’t so serious — for all of us — it would be funny. But it is serious. It shows how much disregard some ISPs have for their users’ rights to receive emails they want to receive. People pay for this newsletter, so obviously they want it. Yet Optus has blocked this newsletter many times as spam. When you read Trend Micro’s definition of spam, and consider that Optus uses Trend Micro’s spam filtering software, you’ll see that it’s not really spam filtering – it’s censorship.
Here is Trend Micro’s definition of spam (and no we did not make this up):
“STANDARD:
An electronic message is “spam” IF: (1) the recipient’s personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other potential recipients; AND (2) the recipient has not verifiably granted deliberate, explicit, and still-revocable permission for it to be sent; AND (3) the transmission and reception of the message appears to the recipient to give a disproportionate benefit to the sender.
DISCUSSION:
Trivial or mechanized personalization such as “Dear Mr. Jones, we see that you are the holder of the JONES.COM domain” does not make the personal identity of the recipient relevant in any way.
Failing to click the “do not send me marketing literature by e-mail” button in a web sign-up form does not convey explicit permission. Only when the default result is “no follow-up e-mail” AND the inbox impact is clearly stated before any action which changes this result, can permission of this kind be conveyed.
The appearance of disproportionate benefit to the sender, and the relevancy of the recipient’s specific personal identity, are authoritatively determined by the recipient, and is not subject to argument or reinterpretation by the sender.
Non-personal e-mail always places a disproportionate cost burden on the recipient, and is considered to disproportionately benefit the sender unless it was verifiably solicited or by the recipient’s willing exception.
A message need not be offensive or commercial in order to fit the definition of “spam.” Content is irrelevant except to the extent necessary to determine personal applicability, consent, and benefit.
© 1989-2005 Trend Micro Incorporated. All rights reserved.”
It appears that Trend Micro is so confident they’ve found the perfect definition of spam, they’ve made no changes to it since 2005. You can see by reading their definition of spam that almost any email could be defined as spam – even a personal email from you to your grandma. It’s just plain old censorship; you don’t need it and neither do we.
If you are not getting this newsletter every Friday, your ISP is using spam filters and our newsletter is being blocked. We have sent this newsletter for 430 weeks in a row. And if ever there comes a time when we cannot publish this newsletter on the day it’s normally published, we’ll let you know. You have choices. You can get a free Gmail account at www.gmail.com and set it up in your favorite email program – it will work just like your ISP’s mail service. You can also get a free account at www.gmx.com – and set it up in your favorite email program. Both Gmail and GMX offer free POP3 and IMAP as well as mail forwarding services. It makes little sense to allow your ISP to control your email to the point where you cannot even receive the emails you want to receive.
Do not allow you ISP to block your important emails. You pay for this newsletter – you have a right to receive it; your ISP has no right to tell you emails you’re allowed to read and which you’re not.
Optus blocks thousands and thousands of legitimate emails every day, using Trend Micro’s spam software. And we’re sorry to say that Optus isn’t the only ISP who blocks and censors your email. If you’re not receiving the emails you want, if your ISP insists on babysitting your email account regardless of what you want, maybe it’s time you stood up for your rights and told your ISP what you think. Remind them that you pay them for their service!
I had no idea that this was some of my problems a while back. I use Yahoo mail as my primary email account. Thank you for the heads up.
Peteski
Thank you I must check if Iprimus uses Tend Micro . I have had normal e-mail go into my Spam folder. Not that it matter as they can be retreived.
Nice to be made aware of these pitt-falls.