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Suggestion for "mailboxes" in ddress
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Seth Honeycutt
Feb 13, 2004, 3:45:00 PM2/13/04
to ietf...@imc.org
This is a suggested possible idea for Internet Mail with RFC 822 / RFC
2822,
etc. It is similar to "disposable e-mail addresses", but
implemented in a different way. It is suggested as a standard so
that it can be used by anyone with a currently existing e-mail account
and an e-mail client. (The phrase "mailbox" in quotes used below
does not refer to the word [mailbox] that is used in RFC 822 that
refers to a username / account mailbox on a mail server.) The
suggestion is to add an optional “mailbox” specification to the
username part of the address text
string of an e-mail address. This “mailbox” specification could
be used as an effective way to virtually eliminate SPAM (which I will
explain about in more detail) and also, as a side benefit, give a nice
tool to organize a user’s incoming mail. An example address could
look something like this:
user101:mai...@domain.com
The [:] colon character could be used to separate the username from the “mailbox” name and then the rest of the address after the [@] symbol would be the same. Adding a “mailbox” specification should be compatible with SMTP and any e-mail sender’s client software since it will consider everything in front the [@] symbol to be a username. There would only need to be slight changes with the server software of a mail server that wants to offer this service to their own users. A server that allows this service would need to analyze the username in an incoming e-mail address differently by only looking at everything before the [:] colon when looking for the username. The server (especially one the uses POP3 when users check their mail) doesn’t need to concern itself with the “mailbox” specification, but can just let the user’s client software take care of that. One way you could use “mailbox” names for organizational purposes is that, on a business card, you could say [user.name:cli...@work.com] so all mail from potential business clients who use that address will end up in a clients “mailbox” view in your e-mail program.
In regards to how this could be used to virtually eliminate unsolicited mail, you could use the “mailbox” specification in the following ways. When you give your e-mail address to someone, like all your family members, you could give them something like this (which they could still put in their e-mail program’s address book just like any e-mail address): [user101:fami...@domain.com]. Your e-mail client software (and possibly the server) could be set to not accept any e-mail that doesn’t include a “mailbox” specification or includes a “mailbox” name that you haven’t created. You could then have a special folder or “mailbox” view that would show all of your e-mail from family members. The “mailbox” name could act almost like a password (something that SPAMers wouldn’t be able to guess without sending out thousands of attempts) but that you could give out as part of your e-mail address. It would be very unlikely that a family member would give that “mailbox” name away on a SPAMers list; but even if they did you would only need to change the “mailbox” name with your family members to stop it. With “mailbox” names your whole e-mail account should never be completely corrupted if it ends up on a SPAMers list, since you can just delete the “mailbox” name the SPAMer’s are using to send you e-mail and not having to go looking for a new e-mail account.
Probably the number-one way your e-mail address ends-up on a SPAMer’s list is by entering your e-mail address on a website to sign-up for a newsletter or if it is required to use their website’s services. You could create a special mailbox just for newsletters that you solicit and want to receive. Whenever you sign-up for a newsletter you could type in something like [user101:news304-...@domain.com]. You could increase security with a “mailbox” by creating virtual “mailbox” names that includes both fixed and variable parts. In your e-mail client you could specify a “mailbox” name for your newsletters by including a wildcard character(s) [*] or [?] in the name. For instance you could name the mailbox something like these: [news*], [???news91], [news*letters], or [newsletters-*]. The e-mail client will then accept any email to that virtual “mailbox” that has those fixed parts, but can have any number of alpha-numeric characters wherever the wildcard [*] character appears, or just a single varying alpha-numeric character where a [?] wildcard character appears. This would allow you to give a random set of numbers or letters where the wildcard is in the newsletter “mailbox” name each time you give your e-mail address to sign-up for a newsletter on a website. For instance, on one website you could enter [user101:news2549] and then for another newsletter something like [user101:news8f3c], etc. If just one of the newsletters you signed-up for leaked your e-mail address to a SPAM list, you can just block that one virtual “mailbox” name that you used when signing-up for that newsletter and still receive the other newsletters just the same. Another benefit is that you would be able to tell who leaked your e-mail address by comparing the e-mail address “mailbox” name that was used by the SPAMers that also matches the “mailbox” name used by one of the newsletter senders. Wildcards shouldn't be used too liberally because wildcards increase the number of accepted "mailbox" names significantly (depending on how you use them), but that decision would be up to each user on how secure they want their "mailbox" names to be.
Thank you for your time in considering something like this for improving e-mail. I have had to abandon a few e-mail accounts already from getting too much SPAM there, and by having “mailbox” names you could keep your e-mail address forever and just change certain “mailbox” names that get corrupted (which by having “mailbox” names in the first place would make that unlikely to happen anyway). I currently live in fear of my new address getting into the wrong hands and having to get a new address all over again (even though I am careful and have a free address just for bulk mail and entering on websites for mailing lists). Something similar to this should work with the current Internet e-mail protocols (especially on the sender’s side and with SMTP in general) except for adding a patch to the server software for receiving servers that want to offer this service to their users, that will interpret everything before the [:] colon as the username. The POP3 protocol wouldn’t need to be changed, except for possibly adding new features like a user choosing to have the server block all e-mail that doesn’t designate a “mailbox” name or possibly storing “mailbox” names on the server to block unwanted e-mail at the server level (which would help reduce SPAM Internet traffic). IMAP would probably want to integrate the “mailbox” names into its features since they already have things like user-side folders and mailboxes that could work with the address-side “mailbox” names in the e-mail address itself. Thank you again for you time in considering some way to designate address-side “mailboxes” in an Internet mail address.
(P.S. Another standard separator character (or just an extra alternative character) besides the [:] colon [which is currently not allowed in usernames because it is designated for specifying groups which shouldn't cause a conflict from what I figured] could be used if there would be problems in using it in some applications or protocols. Since the [:] is currently not allowed it should not appear in any existing user / account names on a mail server. I tested the <a href=”mailto:user101:fami...@domain.com></a> HTML tags in both Internet Explorer 6.0 and Netscape 7.0 and they both worked properly creating a new message in an e-mail client, as I expected they would. I also attempted to send an e-mail to [user101:fami...@domain.com] and it seemed to go through SMTP okay with just a return e-mail from the domain.com mail server saying the username was unknown as I expected.)
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user101:mai...@domain.com
The [:] colon character could be used to separate the username from the “mailbox” name and then the rest of the address after the [@] symbol would be the same. Adding a “mailbox” specification should be compatible with SMTP and any e-mail sender’s client software since it will consider everything in front the [@] symbol to be a username. There would only need to be slight changes with the server software of a mail server that wants to offer this service to their own users. A server that allows this service would need to analyze the username in an incoming e-mail address differently by only looking at everything before the [:] colon when looking for the username. The server (especially one the uses POP3 when users check their mail) doesn’t need to concern itself with the “mailbox” specification, but can just let the user’s client software take care of that. One way you could use “mailbox” names for organizational purposes is that, on a business card, you could say [user.name:cli...@work.com] so all mail from potential business clients who use that address will end up in a clients “mailbox” view in your e-mail program.
In regards to how this could be used to virtually eliminate unsolicited mail, you could use the “mailbox” specification in the following ways. When you give your e-mail address to someone, like all your family members, you could give them something like this (which they could still put in their e-mail program’s address book just like any e-mail address): [user101:fami...@domain.com]. Your e-mail client software (and possibly the server) could be set to not accept any e-mail that doesn’t include a “mailbox” specification or includes a “mailbox” name that you haven’t created. You could then have a special folder or “mailbox” view that would show all of your e-mail from family members. The “mailbox” name could act almost like a password (something that SPAMers wouldn’t be able to guess without sending out thousands of attempts) but that you could give out as part of your e-mail address. It would be very unlikely that a family member would give that “mailbox” name away on a SPAMers list; but even if they did you would only need to change the “mailbox” name with your family members to stop it. With “mailbox” names your whole e-mail account should never be completely corrupted if it ends up on a SPAMers list, since you can just delete the “mailbox” name the SPAMer’s are using to send you e-mail and not having to go looking for a new e-mail account.
Probably the number-one way your e-mail address ends-up on a SPAMer’s list is by entering your e-mail address on a website to sign-up for a newsletter or if it is required to use their website’s services. You could create a special mailbox just for newsletters that you solicit and want to receive. Whenever you sign-up for a newsletter you could type in something like [user101:news304-...@domain.com]. You could increase security with a “mailbox” by creating virtual “mailbox” names that includes both fixed and variable parts. In your e-mail client you could specify a “mailbox” name for your newsletters by including a wildcard character(s) [*] or [?] in the name. For instance you could name the mailbox something like these: [news*], [???news91], [news*letters], or [newsletters-*]. The e-mail client will then accept any email to that virtual “mailbox” that has those fixed parts, but can have any number of alpha-numeric characters wherever the wildcard [*] character appears, or just a single varying alpha-numeric character where a [?] wildcard character appears. This would allow you to give a random set of numbers or letters where the wildcard is in the newsletter “mailbox” name each time you give your e-mail address to sign-up for a newsletter on a website. For instance, on one website you could enter [user101:news2549] and then for another newsletter something like [user101:news8f3c], etc. If just one of the newsletters you signed-up for leaked your e-mail address to a SPAM list, you can just block that one virtual “mailbox” name that you used when signing-up for that newsletter and still receive the other newsletters just the same. Another benefit is that you would be able to tell who leaked your e-mail address by comparing the e-mail address “mailbox” name that was used by the SPAMers that also matches the “mailbox” name used by one of the newsletter senders. Wildcards shouldn't be used too liberally because wildcards increase the number of accepted "mailbox" names significantly (depending on how you use them), but that decision would be up to each user on how secure they want their "mailbox" names to be.
Thank you for your time in considering something like this for improving e-mail. I have had to abandon a few e-mail accounts already from getting too much SPAM there, and by having “mailbox” names you could keep your e-mail address forever and just change certain “mailbox” names that get corrupted (which by having “mailbox” names in the first place would make that unlikely to happen anyway). I currently live in fear of my new address getting into the wrong hands and having to get a new address all over again (even though I am careful and have a free address just for bulk mail and entering on websites for mailing lists). Something similar to this should work with the current Internet e-mail protocols (especially on the sender’s side and with SMTP in general) except for adding a patch to the server software for receiving servers that want to offer this service to their users, that will interpret everything before the [:] colon as the username. The POP3 protocol wouldn’t need to be changed, except for possibly adding new features like a user choosing to have the server block all e-mail that doesn’t designate a “mailbox” name or possibly storing “mailbox” names on the server to block unwanted e-mail at the server level (which would help reduce SPAM Internet traffic). IMAP would probably want to integrate the “mailbox” names into its features since they already have things like user-side folders and mailboxes that could work with the address-side “mailbox” names in the e-mail address itself. Thank you again for you time in considering some way to designate address-side “mailboxes” in an Internet mail address.
(P.S. Another standard separator character (or just an extra alternative character) besides the [:] colon [which is currently not allowed in usernames because it is designated for specifying groups which shouldn't cause a conflict from what I figured] could be used if there would be problems in using it in some applications or protocols. Since the [:] is currently not allowed it should not appear in any existing user / account names on a mail server. I tested the <a href=”mailto:user101:fami...@domain.com></a> HTML tags in both Internet Explorer 6.0 and Netscape 7.0 and they both worked properly creating a new message in an e-mail client, as I expected they would. I also attempted to send an e-mail to [user101:fami...@domain.com] and it seemed to go through SMTP okay with just a return e-mail from the domain.com mail server saying the username was unknown as I expected.)
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online
Pete Resnick
Feb 13, 2004, 4:35:39 PM2/13/04
to Seth Honeycutt, ietf...@imc.org
On 2/13/04 at 12:39 PM -0800, Seth Honeycutt wrote:
>The suggestion is to add an optional "mailbox" specification to the
>username part of the address text string of an e-mail address.
This sort of thing is already in pretty widespread use, using the "+"
instead of the ":" that you suggest.
--
Pete Resnick <http://www.qualcomm.com/~presnick/>
QUALCOMM Incorporated
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