SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 /PRNewswire/ --

The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) has released version 2.0 of its Senders Best Communications Practices defining how volume email senders can improve the deliverability of legitimate e-newsletters and permission-based e-marketing. The recommendations, originally issued last year as one of the first collaborative efforts between network operators and volume senders worldwide, has been updated to address new forms of spam and to clarify permission options.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070124/CLW180LOGO )

Available today at the MAAWG site www.MAAWG.org, the updated best practices include new guidelines to help legitimate email avoid being mistaken for image-based junk mail, which has become a popular spamming technique. List permission and opt-in recommendations have been amended to reflect current practices, and recommended user-unsubscribe processes are clarified, along with other updates to the document, according to Dennis Dayman, MAAWG senders committee co-chair and Eloqua Corp. chief privacy officer.

"The MAAWG senders best practices are intended to help protect users' online experience by improving industry cooperation and communication. For example, in this update we advise e-marketers not to embed unsubscribe instructions in an image or icon, as many users' systems will automatically block the message or not display the icon," Dayman said.

Originally issued by MAAWG last year, the best practices were developed through the cooperative effort of the industry's largest ISPs, network operators and vendors. The original practices also were endorsed by other trade associations, such as CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email), an organization that represents Internet users and email recipients.

About the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG)

The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) is where the messaging industry comes together to work against spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. MAAWG (www.MAAWG.org) represents almost one billion mailboxes from some of the largest network operators worldwide. It is the only organization addressing messaging abuse holistically by systematically engaging all aspects of the problem, including technology, industry collaboration and public policy. MAAWG is a member of the global London Action Plan (LAP) and StopSpamAlliance, and leverages its members' depth and experience to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., MAAWG is an open forum driven by market needs and supported by major network operators and messaging providers.

MAAWG Board of Directors: AOL; AT&T (NYSE: T); Bell Canada; Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR); Cloudmark; Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA); Cox Communications; EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK); France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); Goodmail Systems; Openwave Systems (Nasdaq: OPWV); Return Path, Inc. (Full-Member representative to the Board); Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

MAAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; AG Interactive; Bizanga LTD; Eloqua Corporation; Google Inc.; Internet Initiative Japan, (IIJ Nasdaq: IIJI); IronPort Systems; McAfee Inc.; MX Logic; Outblaze LTD; Return Path, Inc.; Sprint; Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Symantec; and Telefonica SA.

Complete member list at http://www.maawg.org/about/roster.

Web site: http://www.MAAWG.org http://www.maawg.org/about/roster

Linda Marcus, APR, +1-714-974-6356, lmarcus@astra.cc, of Astra Communications, for Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group; Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070124/CLW180LOGO