SANTA CLARA, CA - September 11, 2000 - Mailshell.com, the free email management service that protects user privacy and eliminates junk email, today announced a service providing a new level of on-line privacy: Email boxes that users can set to automatically expire after pre-defined periods of time. The service creates disposable proxy email addresses called 'mail shells'. Users can opt to receive the incoming content via their existing email inbox or via their own Mailshell web-based email accounts. Both options are completely free and require no reconfiguration or changes to users' existing email set-up.
"Giving out credit card numbers or email addresses naively relies on the honesty of strangers yet the volume of credit card fraud and junk commercial email indicates that this honor system has collapsed," said Tonny Yu, CEO of Mailshell. "Just as the AMEX's Private Payments credit card numbers expire upon the completion of the transaction, Mailshell's expiring email addresses disappear when users set them to expire."
Users can also specify when they'd like to unsubscribe from specific lists, offerings, etc and Mailshell's guaranteed unsubscribe capabilities will ensure that the communication channel is terminated per the users' request. The expiry date can be assigned or changed at the users' discretion. Mailshell anticipates use of this feature for one-time online transactions requiring an email address, for services that expire after a certain period of time or as a tool for monitoring specific time-sensitive information.
As with Mailshell's standard service, the expiring email address allows users to remain anonymous. Mailshell creates a new, separate and anonymous email address - a 'mail shell' - for each user request and only reveals what the user explicitly has given permission to reveal. Much like the old person-to-person phone call, the system uses the 'mail shell' address to match and authenticate each party's identity, rather than just the recipient's.
The expiring email address service will be available on September 18, 2000. It is another completely free feature of Mailshell's free, user-controlled email management service.
About Mailshell
Mailshell (http://www.mailshell.com) offers the first complete, simple, and totally free solution guaranteed to stop junk mail. The company has created a new abuse-resistant and backward-compatible email infrastructure allowing companies and individuals to more efficiently manage their incoming email. Users gain complete control over their email and their privacy without any changes in their email setup. Mailshell allows users to prevent junk, by providing reviews and samples of the best email lists so that people are properly warned before they give out their email address; stop junk, via Mailshell's advanced filtering technology allowing Mailshell to instantly and permanently stop any email users do not want; and protect privacy, via a series of transparent and anonymous email addresses - 'mail shells' - that only reveal what the user explicitly has given permission to reveal.
Mailshell is a proud member of TRUSTe, the premier privacy seal program worldwide and independent organization dedicated to building consumer trust and confidence in the Internet.
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