Update: Security vendors blocking some Obama campaign e-mails

Computerworld - Antispam vendors have blocked some e-mail from the campaign of Democratic Presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) because customers have complained about receiving irrelevant messages, an executive at MX Logic Inc. said today.

For several weeks, said Sam Masiello, vice president of information security at Englewood, Colo.-based MX Logic, his company has been receiving complaints from customers about messages from the Obama presidential campaign. MX Logic started blocking many of those messages "relatively recently," said Masiello, who declined to be more specific about the timing.

Masiello also declined to give the number of user complaints that triggered the decision, but said that they were "over a hundred a day," which put it above the threshold at which the company considers blocking addresses.

MX Logic isn't alone, said Masiello, though he would not name the other antispam and messaging security services that have taken similar steps. "Based on conversations with our peers, they've had to take the same stance," he said.

The complaints stemmed from messages that concerned rallies and other political events scheduled in other states, said Masiello. "From the standpoint of the users' perspectives, I can see why some messages are considered spam," he said. "The messages are not really relevant to the individual receiving them. You may live in Colorado, but you may be receiving mail about rallies in Virginia or rallies in Ohio."

People who sign up to receive messages from the Obama campaign provide their e-mail address and their ZIP code. The latter, said Masiello, should be enough for the campaign to better target recipients.

Masiello noted that users must opt in to receive messages from the Obama campaign, but said that was beside the point to users, who often accept some messages but object to others. "When you look at it from a user's perspective, they want content that's relevant to them," he said.

He also criticized the Obama campaign for not using a confirmation process to ensure that people who sign up are actually the ones who want to receive the messages. "There's no way to confirm the opt-in because the Obama campaign doesn't send any confirmation e-mail to the address," said Masiello. "So if I had a friend who was a McCain supporter, I could just go and sign him up for Obama e-mail."

MX Logic is not blocking all e-mail from Obama's campaign, nor is it blocking any from the campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz). "We're not blocking mail from the info@barackobama.com address," Masiello said. "Users haven't been complaining about that mail. We're getting lots more about the messages from the individual state addresses."