Starting April 1, Google will reject emails from bulk senders unless they meet the new authentication requirements. This strict rule aims to decrease the amount of spam that reaches Gmail inboxes and increase the safety of Gmail users. By implementing those new requirements, Google aims to save malicious actors from unauthenticated or compromised domain names to spread their harmful payloads and decrease unwanted spam.
Updates from March 27 below. This article was originally published on March 25.
Let’s face it: Gmail users receive just as much spam as anyone else, but luckily, most end up in the spam compromised folder. This folder deserves to be checked for vital emails that have been incorrectly marked as spam. But what if I told you that? In just five days, will a lot of spam be blocked before it has a chance to reach your inbox?In addition, the same new regulations that require correct domain authentication from bulk senders will increase email security for Gmail users. Here’s everything you want to know about Google’s new security rules for anyone sending a high volume of emails to Gmail users.
Google defines a bulk sender as anyone who sends “nearly 5000 or more messages to non-public Gmail accounts in a 24-hour period. “It’s worth noting that this includes all emails sent from the same number one domain, regardless of how many subdomains you can use. Achieving this bulk sender prestige marks you once as a bulk sender permanently, as there is no expiration date for categorization. As mentioned above, bulk sender rules only apply to emails sent to non-public Gmail accounts. However, all senders will have to comply with the new regulations, including those who use Google Workspace accounts to send emails.
In a Gmail product update released in October 2023, Neil Kumaran, product manager at Gmail Group, explains that “many bulk senders don’t protect or configure their systems well, making it easy for attackers to hide among them. “That the user sending emails is who they say they are, especially when it comes to other people sending giant volumes, is a fundamental requirement for email security.
That’s why, starting April 1, all mass senders will be required to authenticate their email according to “well-established best practices. ” Best practices such as domain-based message authentication, reporting and compliance, DomainKeys-identified mail, and sender policy framework. “Ultimately, this will close loopholes exploited by attackers who threaten everyone who uses email,” Kumaran says.
This type of email authentication is a no-brainer for any marketer, as it lessens the threat of identity theft or hijacking by malicious or unethical senders. You may have noticed that I said decrease and not delete because, unfortunately, tactics still exist. However, a Google spokesperson told me that “Gmail has multiple layers of protection and we are constantly adding more to protect ourselves from this attack vector. “
Starting June 1, all bulk senders will be required to have an option to unsubscribe with a single click. Anyone who has tried to unsubscribe from an email list will realize how confusing this procedure can be. Kudos to Google for trying to make this procedure less complicated. difficult for Gmail account holders, but also faster. The June 1 regulations will also require package senders to process unsubscribe requests within 48 hours.
March 27 update: And speaking of one-click unsubscribe options, a feature no one can question, a claim that Google is engaging in election interference by asking Gmail users to unsubscribe from emails sent through Donald Trump’s crusade has gone semi-viral. X (formerly known as Twitter).
This claim was made through accounts ranging from some of the largest pro-Trump accounts to smaller ones, many of the latter seeking out disinformation bot accounts with a handful of followers. The posts in X are not modeled and appear to have been published in intelligent religion through many posters. However, they invoke election interference and recommend that Google is actively looking to borrow from the 2024 presidential election by asking Gmail users to unsubscribe from Trump’s newsletters.
Those that come with screenshots of Google’s alleged political interference intervention reveal that what’s happening is that Google is giving Gmail users the option to unsubscribe from an email list where that user hasn’t opened any email to read in a month or more.
There’s even a net e added to some of the most prominent account posts on X, which provides the facts of the topic: “Google launched an ‘inbox hack’ feature in 2017 that identifies senders whose emails haven’t been interacted with for a while. A long time. This feature is exclusive to President Trump’s emails or any other political emails.
Fact-checking site Snopes also investigated Trump’s unsubscribe request and concluded that it was fake: “. . . social media influencers have misrepresented a feature introduced through Google in 2017. “
ABC 10 News also refuted this claim in its Fact or Fiction segment. The description of the video segment posted on YouTube goes a step further than most fact-checkers, misrepresenting the accusation of election interference and suggesting that “some conservative social media influencers claim that Google seeks to interfere with the election by suggesting that Gmail users unsubscribe from Donald Trump’s posts. ” emails.