Re: Spam

Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Fri, 05 Feb 1999 16:01:56 -0500

Randall Randall wrote:

> It's been rumored that on Fri, 05 Feb 1999, Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
>
> >I never admitted that. I have specifically said that email can be anonymous AND
> >verified as coming from the source specified, just a anonymous digicash is.
>
> Mike, *either* a message is anonymous, *or* we can determine from where it
> came. You cannot have both.

As described, the anonymous remailer server checks the incoming message header for being an authentic source. The server then decrypts the contents of the message, which is the outgoing message. The server examines the header information embeded in the outgoing message to ensure that it mirrors the remailer's server information, then the server mails the message with this new, proper header information (the header of the remailer). Thus the server forgets who sent the message which it decrypts after the fact, but ensures that the message did in fact come from a real place and the real place is mirrored in the incoming header information. Thus you have authentication AND anonymity. Anonymity is a product of the process, not a preceding requirement. Get it?

Mike Lorrey