 | Parts of this article (those related to Alternatives) need to be updated. The reason given is: References a study from two decades ago. (February 2023) |
Address munging is the practice of disguising an e-mail address to prevent it from being automatically collected by unsolicited bulk e-mail providers.[1] Address munging is intended to disguise an e-mail address in a way that prevents computer software from seeing the real address, or even any address at all, but still allows a human reader to reconstruct the original and contact the author: an email address such as, "[email protected]", becomes "no-one at example dot com", for instance.
Any e-mail address posted in public is likely to be automatically collected by computer software used by bulk emailers (a process known as e-mail address scavenging). Addresses posted on webpages, Usenet or chat rooms are particularly vulnerable to this.[2] Private e-mail sent between individuals is highly unlikely to be collected, but e-mail sent to a mailing list that is archived and made available via the web, or passed onto a Usenet news server and made public, may eventually be scanned and collected.
- ^ "Goodreads". Goodreads. Retrieved 2023-06-17.
- ^ Email Address Harvesting: How Spammers Reap What You Sow Archived April 24, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Federal Trade Commission. URL accessed on 24 April 2006.