[Premium-Rx] List Security

[jan at skirrow.org]

Hi All ...

There has been some concern in months past over Premium-Rx subscribers who 
wondered if their email address could be picked up by spammers.

There was an interesting email on another list recently about how SPAM 
producers have developed automated software to sign up to reflectors, and 
then grab the subscription list.

As Premium-Rx requires approval by Greg Bailey before they are subscribed, 
the Spammers will not gain access to the subscription list with such software.

However, as any list member can get access to the subscriber list, it is 
still possible for the complete list to get out should someone use it for 
other purposes. Although this is unlikely, you can guard against this by 
going to your personal Premium-Rx web page and changing your options to 
keep your email address private.

Of course even this isn't perfect, as subscriber email addresses can be 
picked off the archives - which are currently open to anyone. At the moment 
addresses in the archives are slightly disguised, but it seems possible 
that a determined spammer could develop software to put them into usable form.

The only way to block this is to make the archives private - i.e. open only 
to subscribers. This would not be useful to non-subscribers who don't meet 
the subscription criteria, but who want to follow our discussions.

If anyone has strong feelings about this, let me know. Otherwise I'll leave 
things as they are!

Cheers from Canada's Wet Coast ...

Jan Skirrow, VE7DJX