The emerging tactics of several ISP’s to combat spamming on the internet is beginning to take its toll on users across the webscape. Who would have thought that ISP’s will begin filtering out of their servers all foreign email addresses. If it sounds like xenophobia on the web, it is. These filters only apply to outgoing mail, not incoming. Thus, if a user has several email accounts and he happens to sign up with a service like Verizon’s RADSL, because that is the only service available, he is also forced to switch ISP sevices. This seems to make good sense. However, you cannnot make up meaningful e-mail account names. Second, you cannot continue to use your other e-mail accounts. You can receive mail, but you cannot send. Your read receipts always get trapped in the outbox. This trend is going to disrupt the ease-of-use issues that both hardware and software vendors have been trying so hard to accomplish. More significantly, I believe that it strikes at the heart of privacy issues ifa service like Verizon’s can filter your email and coerce you to use the only one that identifies you to their domain and to the world of the Internet. Gone are the days when you can pride yourself on meaningful e-mail names like, slobo@mindspring.com, or ironleader@aol.com. Verizon forces you to stay within pastuerized boundaries, like res04gir@gte.net. That is, unless you can locate and ISP that will abandon the relay blocking and rely on Good Old American common sense to prevent spamming.There is a silver lining to all these. Look out for the rise of AOL. The net giant whose fortunes were dwindling as the internet continued the trend toward more seamless transmission secure data and some garbage may be poised for another boost in membership. As people lose the ability to retain their identities, they will find retreat in the “walled garden” of American Online, where at least, I know who I am: Cyberdix@aol.com.
