Score another one for voluntaryism and the free market in the fight against email spam. Tired of receiving tons of spam? Don’t want to join a coercive government registry or support any coercive government legislation? Then you might want to check out Blue Security.
The ingenious developers at Blue Security have created a way for you to report spam and reduce the amount you receive with little or no hassle. All you have to do is join the Blue Community, download the Blue Frog software program, and report spam when you receive it. If spammers don’t stop sending spam to those in the community, Blue Security identifies the spammer and uses scripts in Blue Frog to automatically post complaints. The power of large numbers. Many, if not most, spammers have strong business incentives to reduce complaints and stop sending spam to those who have declared their intention not to receive it.
There are downloadable extensions for Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, making the service even easier to use for those who use these programs.
The service is currently in beta testing and free. You can register up to 10 email addresses and one domain name. I’m not sure if they’ll eventually start charging for email protection but the FAQ on their website indicates that they will eventually start charging businesses and for domain name coverage. However, those who sign on now, the company says, will continue to be served for free. And this is no April Fools joke.
