Cloudmark Authority: Boom for Big Brother, Bust as Spam Filter

Network Solutions nsCensorship (Cloudmark Authority):
Great for Big Brother, a Bust at Blocking Spam

[Source: ldrlongdistancerider[dot]com/02 ]

Euphemistically packaged and sold to the American Sheeple as a "spam filter", Cloudmark Authority is actually the email censorship software of choice in Communist China:

http://tinyurl.com/yb3vhx7

Here in the United States, that same censorship system is installed on the email servers of many of our largest telecoms, internet service providers (ISPs), social networks and web hosting companies, including Network Solutions:

http://www.cloudmark.com/en/serviceproviders/

Shortly after Network Solutions implemented Cloudmark Authority in late 2009, we and other Network Solutions clients became victims of its sinister Big Brother capabilities:

http://ldrlongdistancerider.com/bikers_rights_motorcycle/rightsriders0163.php

Since that time, we've experienced a regular pattern (see below) by which legitimate political email communications have either been blocked from being sent via SMTP, or blocked from being received via webmail or POP, or we have been blocked from receiving replies to those emails, or all of the above. In some cases, after multiple complaints, we have been able to get those blocks lifted. But in some cases, blocks that were lifted were eventually reactivated, even after we were assured by Network Solutions that such a thing "would not happen".

Ironically, the number of unsolicited commercial emails (U.C.E. or "spam") delivered to our inboxes by Network Solutions has increased rather than decreased since they installed Cloudmark Authority (see below). So although our 1984-ish experiences validate Cloudmark Authority as a great censorship tool for Big Brother, as a spam blocker, spam filter or weapon against "messaging abuse", it's a bust.

Have you ever sent an email that never arrived?
Has anyone ever sent you an email that was never delivered?
Start asking WHY!

[ Cloudmark Authority is Internet Censorship :: nsMail Forum ]

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POLITICAL EMAILS BLOCKED BY CLOUDMARK AUTHORITY

Through 10 March 2010

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SPAM NOT BLOCKED BY CLOUDMARK AUTHORITY

Through 10 March 2010

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[ Cloudmark Authority Blocks Important Business Emails ]

WHAT OTHER PEOPLE SAY ABOUT CLOUDMARK AUTHORITY

"Way too many false-positives... Indeed, it is used by the larger ISP and email providers. With first hand experience (and yes I can verify I worked with them), it is a horrible, censoring, and flanked with false-positives all over the place spam package... Dealing with the "vendor" as we referred to them in the past, was a nightmare. Trying to get a false-positive fingerprint removed was near impossible, only to find it flagged and blocked again within days. Keep in mind, 2 old ladies sending jokes and pictures back and forth over email is not really spam, now is it? According to CloudMark, it is... Personally, I would never, ever, ever, use their service if I had a choice of another vendor."--Joe
"I read the [Network Solutions] "press release", and had to scoff at every other sentence. NS didn't "offer", they implemented [Cloudmark], without warning (some say they received an email, but the email to me must have been eaten by Cloudmark)... I stopped receiving messages from a regular client, I've added her to my special filtering, and NS keeps asking me to have MY client send them an email so that her emails can be 'checked' for problems! ... The big problem with this "filter" is that it is a "block". There is no spam folder where you can go see which emails aren't making it through. It seems to me that NS is just trying to cut their costs. There is no way for me, as a web host and email client, to see which emails are not coming through and which business I am losing... How am I supposed to have a new-to-me, unknown-to-me, client send NS an emails so that their emails come through to me? ... I guess I will be looking for a new host--one that gives me a wee bit of control over my incoming email! ... And, I do seem to be receiving more junk mail than I used to. Go figure..."--Anita
"During the days when Network Solutions (NS) turned up the Cloudmark software on Oct 15, I was exchanging emails with my webdesigner while we remodelled part of my website (hosted by NS). Suddenly the emails were not getting through (no bounce message). Other emails went fine. We both scratched our heads. My web-designer later found that lots of his emails were not making it through NS. He eventually got an NS support guy to run the emails through the SPAM filter and found that his phone # (a regular US phone#) was being flagged and also the URL to a website he hosted where he expressed doubt about the official 9-11 story. I don't agree with his opinions on 9-11, but censorship is unconstitutional, and this looks a lot like it. I wouldn't have believed it if I was told the story, but I when I looked at the emails that didn't make it through for me, behold they contained his phone number in the footer. Beware Cloudmark looks a lot like censorship."--Liam
"This new Cloudmark email blocking service has reduced my client emails! You say above it is flexible, but it is not. Emails never come into the system and cannot be retrieved. There is no way for me, a Network solutions web hosting customer, to know that I am not receiving emails from old or new clients. There is no bounce-back to the sender and I get no notification of a block. Regular customer emails are now NOT coming in--or come through sometimes but not all the time. It is crap for this small business, which uses their webpage to attract new clients (a novel idea, I am sure)!"--Anonymous@WHIR
I was talking to a customer yesterday who was looking for a solution for a problem he was having getting his campaigns out to customers. His website is hosted by Network Solutions, one of the larger domain and web hosting providers around. Recently, he has been running into problems getting his emails out to customers through his domain server at Network Solutions... Recently, Network Solutions partnered with Cloudmark and the new antispam filters they are using is making it difficult for domain holders to both send and receive email through the Network Solutions mail server. Not only that, but apparently, they are discouraging customers from sending business email through their server at all and actually encouraging their customers to spend money on a third party email service provider for their email communication--even though they advertise email as part of their hosting solution... No, I'm not kidding. It's right on their website: '...Here are some steps you can take to help avoid getting blocked: Consider using a service like Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com) to send out your newsletters. This will help you ensure that your emails are sent out safely and that you do not end up getting blocked...' It appears that Network Solutions is positioning themselves as a host-only solution like GoDaddy (who have a daily send limit of 250 messages per day) and telling small businesses that they should spend some more money on another mail provider if they want a reliable business email solution.... Of course, Network Solutions customers have responded with a WTF!
- '...Since your new system has been put in place I cannot even receive a copy of my own email newsletter...'
- '...I am so disappointed. I noticed a change in my emails and was contacted by several customers that I had not responded to their email messages. Needless to say, I lost thousands of dollars in one week. I figured out that reply emails became spam and I had no way to look at this spam to correct. I contacted Network Solutions 3 times inquiring as to what was going on and to get help. Not one time did any of the customer services technicians tell me that NS had made changes to spam filtering. Did they not know? After several days and no help from NS, I moved my email...'
- '...I have missed a great number of emails from many of my major clients since the installment of new spam filter. And my emails to them never reached them either in the past ten days. Please know that we rely on Network Solutions to run a business and we simply cannot afford to have this happen and lose credibility with our clients. This is a major embarrassment and I strongly urge Network Solutions to take tremendous care and caution as you make changes to our email services...'
- '...I can't even get email from myself now! I have never had an issue with spam, but since these changes have taken place, I am not receiving email from several other people....who are not spammers...'
- '...Since the implementation of Cloudmark by Network Solutions not only did my so called spam go down but a lot of my work related emails disappeared as well. A mailing I have been sending out every two weeks for years, all of the sudden won't reach me if I send it to myself. Any company that responds to that email also gets killed by the spam engine. So I now find I have more time on my hands because Network Solutions/Cloudmark have in effect killed my business until I can move to a web host which is not so intent on driving their customers away...'
- '...What kind of morons sat around the table at Network Solutions and decided this was good for your customer's businesses?...'
- '...My hosting services with NS are due for renewal. I plan to switch to another provider ASAP if I am not given a satisfactory response to this disaster of a change NS has foisted on us... your customers...'
People are obviously upset. The ironic thing is that this type of spam filtering doesn't dissuade the big spammers from sending spam. Eighty percent of spam sent in the world is sent from 100 spam gangs who don't give a hoot about new antispam filters or rules which cause disruption to the many legitimate small businesses trying to communicate with their customers via email... The spam gangs who send 80 percent of the worlds spam will get around all of those things in time. They have the technology and the knowledge to bypass Cloudmark and other antispam agents who are making life miserable for legitimate senders. But the temporary fix that these filters provide necessitates the filtering of a lot of legitimate email from customers and making it unfairly difficult to send and receive important email... It's like shooting everyone in the auditorium to get the gunman to stop shooting people in the auditorium."--The Messaging Times

[ Tags: cloudmark authority, internet censorship, big brother, censor, email blocker, spam filter, network solutions, nscensorship ]

Network Solutions nsCensorship (Cloudmark Authority):Great for Big Brother, a Bust at Blocking Spam

Have you ever sent an email that never arrived? Has anyone ever sent you an email that was never delivered? Start asking WHY!

POLITICAL EMAILS BLOCKED BY CLOUDMARK AUTHORITY

SPAM NOT BLOCKED BY CLOUDMARK AUTHORITY

WHAT OTHER PEOPLE SAY ABOUT CLOUDMARK AUTHORITY

Network Solutions nsCensorship (Cloudmark Authority):
Great for Big Brother, a Bust at Blocking Spam

Have you ever sent an email that never arrived?
Has anyone ever sent you an email that was never delivered?
Start asking WHY!