This reminds me of a similar story around Christmas time where an email
was blocked because it contained the something like "flaming" which was
actually an exert from a carol!
Similarly I recall there being an article that mentioned emails
containing the word "Scunthorpe" not getting through filters.
It is interesting in itself, given some of the examples cited so far,
to see how many of these emails are making it through our organisation's
filters and onto the list!
Tanya Holden
Group Information Governance Manager
Metropolitan Housing Group
Cambridge House
109 Mayes Rd
Wood Green
London
N22 6UR
Tel. 020 8829 8070
[log in to unmask]
www.mht-group.co.uk
>>> Chris Bayliss <[log in to unmask]> 06/13/06 10:27 am >>>
On Tue, Jun 13, 2006 at 09:29:52AM +0100, Tinsley, Chris wrote:
> Did any one see this article about the perils of monitoring for
Swear
> words
>
>
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/30/uemail.x
> ml
>
> We have recently been told at WCC that ICT are now monitoring for
> "swear" words at the email gateway. At WCC we have a policy which
> allows limited private use of email as long as it is not offensive
or
> inappropriate. Offensiveness and inappropriateness is in the eye of
the
> beholder, words between friends will have differing appropriateness
than
> words between customers and clients.
>
> The list of words which are block has not been published (probably
to
> avoid offending staff).
>
> Do people think that a policy which automatically monitors and
blocks
> private as well as business emails using a list of words considered
> inappropriate is a good idea?
As the article you cite illustrates, blocking on a list of words is
not a good idea whatever it is for. Before effective spam filtering
software was available, we tried a keyword and keyphrase filter (on a
purely opt-in basis). We had some success with phrases, but learnt
that
there were very few single words that could be blocked safely.
There are problems words which can have innocuous meanings - erection
was mentioned, but there are plenty of others - eg box, member,
rimming, cock, screw, shag, etc. You can't sensibly block them, but
if
you allow the words through, the filter isn't doing what you want.
There is also simple matter of false positives in people's names. We
had numerous complaints from people - for example a Dr Wank, a Dr
Cunther and a Richard Dick (I am not joking).
Ther other problem is of mis-spelt words getting through (there are
many variations for the F word - possibly one of the few words that it
is safe to block). We did try allowing for variations in spelling,
but this produced complaints from an engineer mailing about a Fokker
aircraft and physisists trying to discuss the Hartee-Fock theory.
We were only trying to reduce incoming spam. There are now more
effective methods that we deploy.
The whole idea of censoring mail by keywords illustrates the double
standards applied to written elecronic and paper based communications.
I doubt if many organisations open letters and screen them for swear
words.
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