Is a universal unsubscribe feasible?
Back in the day, a usenet curmudgeon called it the FUSSP, as in “You have discovered the Final Ultimate Solution to the Spam Problem” and therefore, you are an expert.
But that was never the case.
Unsubscribe.com believes it is possible, and they convinced venture capitalists to part with $2.1 million to make it so.
The technical hurdles to a universal unsubscribe are significant. For one thing, competent mailers don’t need it because they offer their own effective removal techniques. Criminal mail operations wouldn’t use it unless they can find a way to engineer it to build mailing lists or confirm live address.
How does one unsubscribe from some random message? How will they generate $2.1 million (plus) through an annual $20 subscription? And, oh yeah… you have to download an executable to your computer to use it.
Riiight.
