Spam Protection Technology for Web Sites, Anti-Spam, Protect Your Web Site from Email Harvesting, Spam Robots, Spambots

Azalea Technology takes an aggressive stance against spam. We know our customers depend on email as a vital communication tool, and we work hard to protect

integrity of our customers' email communications by stopping spam where it starts. Azalea Technology employs proprietary anti-spam technology throughout its Web site and the Web sites of its customers in order to prevent spam on the Web.

If you are reading this, you probably clicked a link found somewhere else on the Azalea Technology Web site where email and spam related concerns apply. You have probably also noticed that no email addresses appear in the visible text or in the HTML source code throughout the Azalea Technology Web site. If you are frustrated with our no-email-address approach, please continue reading for an understanding of the security and protection this approach offers you and others.

The Spam Problem — The Ever-Changing Enemy

The prevalence of unsolicited commercial messages also known as spam or junk email has forced information technology professionals to rethink their strategies for combating spam. In November 2002, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a Consumer Alert (click to read) warning about the junk email epidemic. The FTC Consumer Alert highlighted some of the major sources of junk email on the Internet.

As time goes on, those proliferating spam (i.e. “spammers”) continue to become more cleaver in their methods and means of delivering junk email to your inbox. In combating spam, the conventional methods are becoming less and less effective. The present battle against spam must being fought on multiple fronts. Understanding the spam life cycle helps shed light on why a multi-pronged approach for combating spam is so vital to an effective overall anti-spam strategy.

Spam & The Web — Friends of the Enemy

What does the Web have to do with spam? The answer is surprising. The Web and spam have a significant relationship, likely more significant than you ever imagined, and sadly, often more than many Web professionals ever realize. Most Web sites on the internet today are a gold mine of email addresses. Publishing an email address on the Web is essentially requesting to receive spam. Sadly, your request for spam may be fulfilled with the lightning-speed customer service you long for from your local grocery store.

Automated software programs called spam robots or spambots use a technology similar to the spidering technology used by search engines. Spambots follow Web links from one Web site to another in search of email addresses. Because email addresses generally follow a common pattern (i.e. abc at abc dot com), spambots can process the text of a Web site and search for text that matches the pattern. Text that matches the pattern is captured and stored. This method of collecting email addresses is sometimes called email address harvesting. With a little imagination, you can see just how easily the innocent text on your Web site can be converted into a spam database in just a few minutes.

Stop Spam on The Web — Defeating the Enemy

Preventing spam early in the spam life cycle means limiting and circumventing the collection of valid email address for illegitimate purposes. To prevent spambots from recognizing email addresses on a Web site, the email addresses must be encrypted, obscured, obfuscated or removed. However, in doing so, it is necessary strike a delicate balance between allowing legitimate email communication by Web site visitors and preventing email address harvesting by spambots. This is the dilemma.

One of the most common approaches includes rendering email addresses as images rather than text thereby preventing textual pattern matching techniques. Other approaches include various methods of disguising email addresses or just removing them altogether. Many of these approaches require special server-side software or programming. If you are a Web professional, it is imperative that you exercise due diligence. Inform your employer or your customers about these risks and help seek a solution.

Read more about preventing email harvesting in Preventing the Problem: Spambots & Email Harvesting.

Spam Stops Here — The End of Enemy

Unlike many Web services companies, Azalea Technology goes to great lengths to protect the integrity of its customers' email addresses. As an Azalea Technology customer, you'll have the peace of mind knowing that leading-edge Web technology is being used to help keep your inbox clean. With Azalea Technology, spam stops here.