The Spamhaus Project has debuted a new whitelisting service that is designed to be the inverse of the way that most approved-sender lists work. The Spamhaus Whitelist will exclude by default any IP address or domain that sends marketing or soliciting mail at all and will require domain owners to have an inviation in order to join the whitelist.
The new whitelist service comprises two separate parts: an IP address whitelist and a domain whitelist. The services operate on the principle that mail senders must know the users to whom they are sending email.

"Unlike traditional whitelists, the Spamhaus Whitelist is not a service to help bulk mail senders improve delivery rates. You can not whitelist an IP address or domain that is used for sending marketing or soliciting bulk email, or used for sending any email on behalf of third parties. This rule therefore automatically excludes (makes not eligible for whitelisting) Email Service Providers, ISP customer mail relays and mail servers used by third-parties, and all bulk mailing list servers and services," the company said in its explanation of the service.

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