The General Context

A mailing list is made up of people with common interests who accept to supply their E-mail address in order to receive information or exchange E-mail with the other members of the group. A person who subscribes to a mailing list has no way of knowing the names or E-mail addresses of the other members of the group, except when a subscriber sends a message to this mailing list and his/her name appears in the From: line of the E-mail message.

The Issues

Disclosing E-mail Addresses | Types of Lists | Moderated Lists | Archived Messages | Attachments | Subscription by the Teacher | Right to Unsubscribe | Read Receipt

Disclosing E-mail Addresses

When a subscriber sends a message to a mailing list, the E-mail address and sometimes the name of the subscriber are transmitted to all the subscribers of this list in the header of the message in the From: line of the E-mail.

Types of Lists

A mailing list may be private or public. It reaches any number of subscribers. The owner of a private list determines who will be allowed to subscribe. In the case of a public list, anyone may subscribe and participate.

Moderated Lists

A list may be moderated or not. Each message sent to a moderated list is read and approved by a designated moderator before it is forwarded to the subscribers. In case of an unmoderated list, messages are sent directly to the subscribers without being vetted.

Archived Messages

As a general rule, all the messages sent to a mailing list are archived on the server for a period that may vary depending on the list. Users cannot delete a message once it has been sent and archived. These archives are accessible to all the subscribers of the list.

Attachments

Some mailing lists allow a subscriber to send an attachment (a document) to all other subscribers. This document may contain personal information as well as viruses. As well, the document is copyrighted to the original creator.

Subscription by the Teacher

A user usually subscribes to a list by sending a request to a specific list address. But teachers can subscribe students to a list of which they are the owners, or they can mandate the administrator of a server to perform this task on their behalf without the user having to post a request.

Right to Unsubscribe

Subscribers can cancel their subscription to a list (unsubscribe) at any time by sending a request to the list.

Read Receipt

Subscribers to a mailing list may, at any time, ask for acknowledgement of receipt of the messages they send (read receipt). This practice makes it possible for someone to obtain, in a roundabout way, the E-mail address of all the subscribers who comply with the request.