On 10 Jun 2016, at 11:23, Laura Atkins wrote:
In this case, having read the documents and followed the public
discussions, there’s no real clear benefit. There is also a lot of
expense. So that’s a problem. The benefits need to be better
articulated by the people who want to make the change.
Yes, indeed: this unicorn's horn is inadequately polished.
More directly: I don't think any "One Click Unsubscribe" can be a net
benefit for the parties who would need to do the most work to implement
and deploy it. As someone whose job security is improved by the
proliferation of arcane external/interop email failure modes, I'm not
saying that out of self-interest.
Also in this case, there is a significant chance that the proposal
will result in sub-optimal or harmful results. It is a fact that there
are appliances and filters out there that follow every link in an
email. Implementing a protocol where a link being followed means a
user is unsubscribed immediately will result in people being
unsubscribed. I understand this proposal makes whatever is
automatically clicking the link append a magic token to the URL, in an
effort to stop this. I think that makes the proposal overly complex
and fragile.
Exactly. If a well-intentioned, prudent, and wise organization
implements a protocol into being an opaque "Just Do What I Want" button
in a way that behaves as the protocol envisions, there will be
malicious, reckless, and/or stupid entities deploying implementations
that behave badly and/or facilitate malicious use within days.
The result is that by hiding a complex protocol behind the face of a
"one-click" unsubscribe button, you create a whole new collection of
subtle and obscure ways that various implementations can quietly and
rarely operate incorrectly. Unsubs that should not occur WILL. Unsubs
that should occur WILL NOT. Users will expect their personal and
workplace mail systems to give them identical experiences of the new
protocol, which mostly WILL NOT happen.
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