[ih] Design choices in SMTP (custom emails per recipient)

[John R. Levine]

> <[[get off my lawn]]>
> 
> Yes, who could have expected that in 2023, each message sent to a
> mailing list would have unique spyware carefully inserted into each
> recipient's message in the hope of developing a database of detailed
> information about where, when, and by whom each message ever sent was
> read, re-read, and/or forwarded?

Please, sir, step away from the kool-aid.

The main reason bulk mail is customized these days is to put in unsubscribe 
links that let recipients unsub with one click without having to guess what 
address it was sent to.

I suppose some mail has web bugs, but these days most MUAs don't fetch them, 
and the big webmail systems use proxy farms so even if they do fetch them, the 
senders can't tell who or what clicked on them.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl at taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly