Re: Accessible "munging" of e-mail addresses on web sites

> I would be interested in any views on "munging" (disguising) e-mail 
> addresses on web sites to prevent their being harvested by spammers 
> (senders of unsolicited bulk e-mail).

The only way that anything that is vaguely accessible will work is when
very few people use it. 
 
> This is the format I have been using:
> matt at kbc dot net dot au

Machine parsing this is easy and recognizing it shouldn't be difficult.
You'll only get away with it to the extent that recognizing unmunged
addresses is even easier and there is no shortage of supply, and to the
extent that this tends to be done for people's own address, rather than
those of third parties, so it tends to indicate to spammers people who
are less likely than average to act (positively) on the spam.

(This sort of munging is going to cause difficulties for people with
cognitive disabilities, of course.)

Received on Saturday, 12 February 2005 09:21:01 UTC