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At last,
the contents of Aardvark's "million-dollar ideas" notebook
are revealed for all to see!
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IDG is this morning carrying
this story
in which it reports that XTRA "has taken the unusual step of
filtering emails based on the file name itself since there is no
attachment to block".
Does this not raise an important issue? Has XTRA, or any other ISP, the
right to filter email based on its content without your expressed consent?
Of course it could be argued that this is no different to filtering spam
based on the ORBS, MAPS or other lists -- but is it?
Now, I'm not an XTRA user so I'm not aware as to whether this email filtering
is a selectable option or whether it's mandatory -- perhaps someone can
provide this information.
However, if it is something that is done without a user's expressed consent then
one has to wonder whether we'd agree to similar actions being taken by NZ Post.
How would you feel of NZ Post opened all your mail and threw in the bin, any
which it deemed to be not in your best interest to receive?
Instead of automatically binning any email containing the virus warning,
why didn't XTRA simply append a small notice referring to one of the many
news stories covering this matter so that the user could still receive
all the email addressed to them but make their own *informed8 decision
as to whether to believe them or not?
Are XTRA telling us that they think their users are so stupid and lacking
in commonsense that they wouldn't understand such a warning and therefore
must be protected from themselves?
Hey, maybe this is true -- if you're an XTRA user, why don't you get someone
to help you work out what all those buttons on the keyboard are for and
send us some feedback on this subject :-)
Do you feel that your intelligence has been insulted or do you think this
filtering is a good idea?
No Lighten Up?
Sorry, there's no lighten up section today -- I'm sitting here surrounded
by piles of tissue and pills as I try to fight off a virus of the biological
variety. Yeah... I've got a cold and am feeling rather sorry for myself.
Normal service will be resumed next week.
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