Certified e-mail

Certified e-mail is an e-mail whitelisting technique by which an internet service provider allows someone to bypass spam filters when sending e-mail messages to its subscribers, in return for paying a fee to the certifying service. A sender can then be sure that his messages have reached their recipients without being blocked, or having links or images stripped out of them, by spam filters. The purpose of certified e-mail is to allow companies to reliably reach their customers by e-mail, while giving recipients certainty that a certified message is legitimate and is not a forged phishing attempt.

CertifiedEmail

The most well-known and controversial certified e-mail service at present is "CertifiedEmail" by [http://www.goodmailsystems.com/ Goodmail Systems] , which has made headlines since February 2006 when AOL and Yahoo announced plans to implement it. AOL has stated that mail from senders who have prepaid 1/4 cent per message will be delivered directly to users' mailboxes without being subject to spam filters. AOL has announced that it will pay the fee for non-profits. [cite web | url=http://www.news.com/AOL-to-pay-e-mail-tab-for-nonprofits/2100-1038_3-6045671.html | title=AOL to pay e-mail tab for nonprofits | publisher=CNET | first=Greg | last=Sandoval | date=March 3 2006 | accessdate=2007-10-04] The messages will be clearly identified to the user as having come from a trusted source. These senders must pass a system of accreditation with Goodmail, and their messages must only be sent to people who have a pre-existing business relationship with the sender. If a sender sends a message to a user who has not previously agreed to receive it, AOL may entirely block the sender.

AOL asserts that free e-mail on AOL's service will continue to work as it always has, and a user will continue to receive all messages from a sender whom he has whitelisted. AOL subscribers will not be charged for sending or receiving e-mail, and senders who do not prepay AOL will have their messages subject to the same spam filters as before.

MoveOn organized a protest of AOL's use of certified e-mail. [cite web | url=http://civic.moveon.org/mediaaction/alerts/Stop_AOL_email_scheme.html | title=Stop AOL email scheme | publisher=MoveOn | date=February 22 2006] It characterizes the program as an "e-mail tax", and claims that AOL is giving spammers a direct route into users' mailboxes, while attempting to move more people to paid e-mail by causing a larger amount of legitimate unpaid e-mail to be rejected by the spam filters.

CertifiedEmail has been adopted by seven of the top 10 ISPs in the USA: AOL, AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Road Runner, Verizon, and Yahoo.

Others

Another so-called certified email program which does bypass spam filters for certain email senders is "Sender Score Certified" by Return Path. Email senders who meet the policy, practices and performance requirements and are approved and whitelisted at over 35,000 domains and ISPs worldwide. Created in 2002 by IronPort it was originally called "Bonded Sender". In 2005, it was acquired by Return Path and renamed. Sender Score Certified is a whitelist, they do not certify individual messages, but rather they certify qualified IP address(es) for their members which then transmit email. While email senders do not pay a fee per email, they are charged an initial certification and yearly license fee.

A slightly different certified email program is "KobeCertified" by KobeMail. Rather than create a new system it encapsulates the top email certification / accreditation programs, and latest email authentication standards, making it easier for email senders to meet various technical and procedural requirements for getting whitelisted at various domains.

Another is offered by "CertifiedMail", which provides the service for enterprises, small businesses and ISPs. The product integrates secure email and large file transfer into existing infrastructure. It is also packaged as a managed service.

References

See also

* email authentication
* Whitelist

External links

* [http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/emailtax.asp An examination of MoveOn's claims] by the Urban Legends Reference Pages
* [http://www.certifiedmail.com CertifiedMail.com] site
* [http://www.kobemail.com KobeMail] site