Re: [Shutup] Proposed Charter for the "SMTP Headers Unhealthy To User Privacy" WG

["John R Levine" <[e-mail]>]

For most Internet mail users, the main privacy threat they face from 
e-mail is getting their personal and financial information stolen by 
malware and phishes.  I can assure you from extensive experience that 
ISPs, security nonprofits like Team Cymru, and law enforcement in many 
countries exert huge efforts to identify and shut down and, sometimes, 
arrest and jail the criminals who do that.  We use all the information in 
mail headers to do that.  I even have taught courses to law enforcement 
people to explain how to decode mail messages so they can use them as 
evidence to build cases against botnet operators and malware authors and 
distributors.

The charter needs to be rewritten to acknowledge the real issues that 
users face, the reality that personal security is as important a human 
right as privacy*, and the fact that the tradeoffs are difficult and 
subtle.

R's,
John

* - See the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, articles 3, 8, 12, 
and 17.