> I suspect we'll see legitimate mailers sending more included graphics
soon as well. MSN and Hotmail are both providing (or about to)
provide filters to turn off automatic inclusion of external graphics.
And the next Outlook is supposedly shipping with the option off by
default. None of that bodes well for content-filters.
...
That does not follow on two counts.
There's no law that says that "content-filters" can't recognize
identical pictures. Spam pictures are likely to vary less than spam
When I say "content-filtering" I'm talking about the stuff that
happens on a solo desktop that may or may not be connected to the
internet. Any type of checksum comparison involves a centralized
service. I would normally put that in a different category. (Time
for me to go reread the last taxonomy of solutions document.) You're
right. That type of filtering may do well with pictures. Of course
you may have to deal with random fuzz there too....