Reply #28: That is why I refered to patterns...

[Devils Advocate NZ]

Well, literally, yes it is, but wouldn't a keyword need context for the message of the email to be known?

The same can be said of spam. That is why spam filters use complex algorithms to detect spam, and not just simple keyword searches. The point is, any program that can filter spam, can filter any other kind of content, no matter what it is about, aqll that is needed are different pattern algorithms.

That brings me back to my original point, which is that the deisrable services, such as virus scanning and spam filtering, can be self-provided by the user easily using one or two simple programs.

But the whole point of these online spam filters and AV scanners is to avoid these messages getting to your computer at all. Without online spam filters, you would have to download hundreds of messages a day, just so that your computer could recognise them as spam and delete them - a major waste of resources.

Added to that, many spam e-mails can only be recognised by the fact that identical messages are sent to multiple recipients on the providers service. Your computer would not be able to tell if such messages were duplicated on every hotmail account (for example) and thus would not be able to filter them out.

So there are two good reasons why spam filtering is best done on the provider's machines instead of your own.

The point is: you either take it all - providers can read your emails, or lose it all - they can't read it, even if reading it would help you.