[privacy] a junk email tracer [crypto]

[VaX#n8 <vax@linkdead.paranoia.com>]

Here's a little idea that I'll throw out to the sharks.
You've probably heard of people who alter their name/address slightly
when applying for credit cards, etc., so that they know when their name
has been sold on a list, and by whom.
Well I say, "why not with email?"
Consider a hack to sendmail (or whatever MDA you have) which
attempts to locate the email address given in a list of distributed
email addresses.  For example,

 vax01.na    put on web page
 vaxu53lr    sent to correspondent foo@bar.com
 vaxbl15.    put on business cards
etc.

Where crypto comes in:
You could actually have the tagged field be the encoded encryption
of the data on the right.  You'd still probably want a list to
weed out bogus addresses that decrypt to nonsense.  Or you could use
encryption to embed a tag marking it as "good" -- a
checksum, fingerprint, signature, whatever.

With an adequate MUA, you could even have it pull up the associated
description with the email as an X-source field or something.

I may not have time to implement this, which is why I threw it out here.
If you do implement it, be nice and put my email/web ptr somewhere
in the credits.  And send me a copy; I hate junk email.
CC me in your comments; this list is too voluminous.

Sorry about the long sig but the quote is appropriate.
--
VaX#n8 | http://www.paranoia.com/~vax | League of Non-aligned Wizards
``In the meantime, there may be a role for individuals who know their
  way around the place.  A few hacks can make a lot of difference
  in this situation.  A freelance hacker could get a lot of shit done,
  years before the giant software factories bestir themselves to deal
  with the problem.'' -- Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash