A Really Bad Idea: Register Your Child’s Email Address with the Michigan or Utah Email Child Protection Registery - 3,218 Views, 2 Comments
|
Previous Article « BREAKING NEWS: NY State Attorney General Reaches Settlement With Spam King Scott Richter
Read Next Article » Microsoft to begin checking for SPF with inbound email to Hotmail, MSN
As stupid ideas go, this one is a doozy: people have long said that one of the downsides of a Do Not Email Registry is that it would be such an attractive target for spammers. Well how about this one: the states of Michigan and Utah just enacted law to create a “children’s protection registry”. Parents can register their children’s email addresses, celphone numbers, and pager numbers, and the concept is that it will be illegal for a business to contact any of the email addresses or telephone numbers listed therein. Most especially it will be illegal for email marketers to send information or links to material which is illegal to market to minors. Talk about an attractive target! Anybody want to hazard a guess as to how many minutes it will be before it is stolen, and how much it will bring on the open market?
Follow Anne on
Twitter 
Friend Anne on Facebook
Twitter Explained in Plain English
Previous Article « BREAKING NEWS: NY State Attorney General Reaches Settlement With Spam King Scott Richter
Read Next Article » Microsoft to begin checking for SPF with inbound email to Hotmail, MSN
Read more:
» Starbucks’ Blog for Customers: My Starbucks Idea
» Revenge of the Spoofed! Trademark Your Domain! Here’s How!
» PetCell Cell Phone for Dogs Announced
» Bone-Headed Idea of the Year: Make Sex Offenders Register Their Email Addresses and Chat Names
For additional similar stories check out our archives on Boneheads, Internet Law, Privacy
NOTE: We never, ever, ever will recommend any product or service on this site that we have not regularly used ourselves and do not wholeheartedly believe in. That said, in some cases after being very pleased with a product or service, we may enter into a relationship with the provider of that product or service such that if someone purchases that product or service based on our recommendation, we may get a small payment. Such payments go towards the upkeep of the Internet Patrol.
Either the author of this article does not understand technology or hasn’t even taken the time to RTFFAQ (Read The FINE FAQ)… Only a “one-way hash” of the email address is stored in the database. (see https://www.utahkidsregistry.com/answer.html?src=q&id=96) The email address itself is not store. If you don’t understand how a one-way hash works then pick up a copy of Bruce Schneier’s “Applied Cryptography” and take the time to educate yourself.
Comment by Mark Jacobs — 8/16/2005 @ 9:13 am
Mark Jacobs wrote:
“Either the author of this article does not understand technology or hasn’t even taken the time to RTFFAQ (Read The FINE FAQ)… Only a “one-way hash? of the email address is stored in the database. (see https://www.utahkidsregistry.com/answer.html?src=q&id=96) The email address itself is not store. If you don’t understand how a one-way hash works then pick up a copy of Bruce Schneier’s “Applied Cryptography? and take the time to educate yourself.”
Either the author of this comment does not understand the Gregorian calendar or hasn’t even taken the time to RTFD (Read The FINE Date) that this article was posted. It was posted more than a year ago, before there *was* a FFAQ, and well before they had any idea how they were going to serve up the registries.
If you don’t understand how basic reading comprehension works then pick up a copy of any Kaplan’s SAT review and take time to educate yourself.
Remember, reading comprehension is your friend. On second thought, apparently not.
Kissy kissy,
Aunty Spam
Comment by Aunty Spam — 8/16/2005 @ 11:43 am