Filter Failure Will new filters save us from spam?. MIT Spam Conference eyes filters to destroy spam business model [InfoWorld: Top News]
In tests Yerazunis performed, MailFilter was 99.915 percent accurate in identifying spam. "I'm only 99.84 percent accurate at identifying spam, so this is much more accurate than I am," Yerazunis quipped.
I am happy for the filter freaks, but its mostly an academic exercise.
Filters are not a solution because they result in false positives, solution techniques are open, spammers adapt, and volume grows. Legal solutions generally wont work because of juristiction, aside from putting bounty hunters on the task. Its fundamentally an economic problem that requires an economic solution -- raising the cost of sending email, but having cost vary according to trust networks. One day we might actually be able to accept these costs.
UPDATE: Video from the conference available. [via BoingBoing]
3:01:45 PM
|