In many lists servers there is an option to mask email addresses from archives, but I am not sure you can do that with names or retrospectively. Javier -- Javier Ruiz javier@openrightsgroup.org +44(0)7877 911 412 @javierruiz On Friday, 13 January 2012 at 12:24, Christine Ross wrote: > Hi, > I've just put my email in Google and did not get any hits. > regards, > Christine > > -----Original Message----- > From: Trevor > Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 11:09 AM > To: FreeBMD-Admins@rootsweb.com (http://web.com) > Subject: My Email Address > > Hi > > I received an spam email this morning purporting to come from a Sheila > Waterfall. So for reasons best known to myself, I put my email address into > Google, and got a load of hits from the RootsWeb.FreeBMD-Admins-L (http://Web.FreeBMD-Admins-L) archive, > which listed both my email address and my real name. > > > > In these days of 'We take your privacy seriously', this does not sit at all > comfortably, and is an open invitation to spammer's' email harvesting > spiders. > > I wonder if all our members are aware of this fact, that your email address > and actual name are freely available on the internet for all to see. I have > no objection to other FreeBMD admins and transcribers etc. having access to > this, but find it concerning that it's open to all. > > > > Had I known that you were going to do this, and publish everything that I > had written on the open Internet, I would not have volunteered as a > transcriber. > > I wonder how many other people realise that this is happening. > > > > Please remove all my posts from the archive. > > Trev > > > > FreeBMD-Admins mailing list - archive > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/freebmd-admins > > FreeBMD http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > FREEBMD-ADMINS-request@rootsweb.com (http://web.com) with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > FreeBMD-Admins mailing list - archive http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/freebmd-admins > > FreeBMD http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to FREEBMD-ADMINS-request@rootsweb.com (http://web.com) with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >
If you look at the page source for one of those list archives, you'll see that the email addresses are generated by a javascript function. They look like this: <script type="text/javascript">DisplayMail('tjt1 ... The string of numbers is the email address (it's longer that I've shown it above), and I assume that the javascript function converts it to a "mailto:" link. If you turn off javascript you don't see the addresses. It would have to be a fairly sophisticated email harvester to spot the email address. Obviously google's search engine can find it, though. Yahoo doesn't find any. So I think it's fairly safe. The spam mail came via the list, so it was nothing to do with people's mail addresses being visible. All the best, Dave (not an admin, just a lurker) On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 12:29:47PM +0000, Javier Ruiz wrote: > In many lists servers there is an option to mask email addresses from archives, but I am not sure you can do that with names or retrospectively. > > Javier > > -- > Javier Ruiz > javier@openrightsgroup.org > +44(0)7877 911 412 > @javierruiz > > > On Friday, 13 January 2012 at 12:24, Christine Ross wrote: > > > Hi, > > I've just put my email in Google and did not get any hits. > > regards, > > Christine > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Trevor > > Sent: Friday, January 13, 2012 11:09 AM > > To: FreeBMD-Admins@rootsweb.com (http://web.com) > > Subject: My Email Address > > > > Hi > > > > I received an spam email this morning purporting to come from a Sheila > > Waterfall. So for reasons best known to myself, I put my email address into > > Google, and got a load of hits from the RootsWeb.FreeBMD-Admins-L (http://Web.FreeBMD-Admins-L) archive, > > which listed both my email address and my real name. > > > > > > > > In these days of 'We take your privacy seriously', this does not sit at all > > comfortably, and is an open invitation to spammer's' email harvesting > > spiders. > > > > I wonder if all our members are aware of this fact, that your email address > > and actual name are freely available on the internet for all to see. I have > > no objection to other FreeBMD admins and transcribers etc. having access to > > this, but find it concerning that it's open to all. > > > > > > > > Had I known that you were going to do this, and publish everything that I > > had written on the open Internet, I would not have volunteered as a > > transcriber. > > > > I wonder how many other people realise that this is happening. > > > > > > > > Please remove all my posts from the archive. > > > > Trev > > > > > > > > FreeBMD-Admins mailing list - archive > > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/freebmd-admins > > > > FreeBMD http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ > > > > > > ------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > > FREEBMD-ADMINS-request@rootsweb.com (http://web.com) with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > FreeBMD-Admins mailing list - archive http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/freebmd-admins > > > > FreeBMD http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ > > > > > > ------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to FREEBMD-ADMINS-request@rootsweb.com (http://web.com) with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > > > > FreeBMD-Admins mailing list - archive http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/freebmd-admins > > FreeBMD http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to FREEBMD-ADMINS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message