Address-on-the-Fly

Address-on-the-Fly (AOTF) is a feature that enables email users to spontaneously create a new email address for disclosure on the Web or over the telephone, without any software interaction or assistance from IT staff. These addresses take the form of the user's primary email name plus a suffix of their choosing. For example, to register for an eWeek newsletter, a user named Julie Smith might create the address “JSmith.eWeek@domain.com.” Similarly, when talking with a client, Julie might disclose the address “JSmith.clientname@domain.com.” In both cases, incoming correspondence will be processed by RTC and delivered to Julie's inbox, right along with all of her other email.

This simple addressing feature has many advantages:

• Protects the primary email address — AOTF gives users the ability to protect their primary email address when making disclosures that may be more likely to attract spam, for example, when transacting business online. Consider the case of a corporate recruiter who routinely registers on job boards in search of candidates; surely this is prime spam territory, but with AOTF, the recruiter's primary address is not exposed.
• Assures delivery of wanted email — Because communication received on an AOTF does not require any challenge/response or content filtering, the message will actually arrive in one's inbox without fail, even in the case of bulk and transactional mail that so often confounds filters.
• Allows personalized communication — AOTF gives the user the ability to personalize communications with a new correspondent, such as a new client or partner. When this is done, all communications with that correspondent are organized on the new supplemental address, avoiding the risk that communication with trusted parties will get trapped by a filter.
• Reveals address sharing — The use of correspondent-specific addresses enables Reflexion to detect when an address is shared with a third party. Intuitive tools enable users to take appropriate action if sharing results in unwanted mail.
• Enables the assignment of a task-specific address —AOTF enables one to track the volume of correspondence related to a specific task. This is particularly useful for tracking the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. For example, a specific address could be disclosed on a press release to track inquiries generated by the release. Similarly, an AOTF could be used on a postcard mailing or in a print advertisement, to link incoming mail directly to the corresponding program.
• Enables users to take control — If an AOTF starts to attract spam for any reason, RTC provides user tools, such as the Control Panel below, to both block the spam and restrict access by future users of the address. For example, the user can decide not to accept mail from anyone other than the person to whom the address was initially disclosed, or anyone outside the domain at which it was initially disclosed. Alternatively, the user can elect not to accept mail from anyone other than those correspondents from whom they have already accepted mail. In the worst case, the user may choose to disable the address altogether, ending this source of spam.

For users that really embrace the Address-on-the-Fly capabilities, Reflexion Total Control enables them to extend its use into their everyday communications in what amounts to “Fully Automatic” AOTF. In this mode, new incoming correspondents are automatically provided with their own supplemental address for the recipient. This process creates a unique “To-From” address pair that Reflexion uses to control access to the recipient's inbox. Now the range of address controls can be applied to a much wider range of correspondents, providing users with greater control over the senders permitted to communicate with them.

Fully automatic AOTF can also be used for outbound bulk mail. For example, when sending out a company newsletter, each person on the distribution list can automatically be assigned their own address to use for replies. In the case of the corporate recruiter, now when she sends an email to a candidate, that candidate will receive his or her own address to use for replies. In both cases, if a recipient forwards mail to a third party, new inbound correspondence on that address, from a different sender, can be tracked back to the original newsletter recipient or job candidate.

Importantly, the issuance and management of protective addresses is fully automated. AOTF can be set as the default configuration, and used in conjunction with community whitelisting and content filtering for a zero maintenance solution for email administrators.