Google is battling spam with Gmail changes for ‘bulk senders’

Gmail is looking to combat spam with new rules for “bulk senders”.

Gmail is looking to combat spam with new rules for “bulk senders”.

Google has unveiled new rules for its email service when it comes to people sending more than 5,000 messages to Gmail addresses per day.

In a blog post Neil Kumaran, group product manager for Gmail security and trust, has detailed various requirements for bulk senders to give people peace of mind, with the changes coming into effect by February 2024.

He wrote: “You shouldn’t need to worry about the intricacies of email security standards, but you should be able to confidently rely on an email’s source.

“So we’re requiring those who send significant volumes to strongly authenticate their emails following well-established best practices.

“Ultimately, this will close loopholes exploited by attackers that threaten everyone who uses email.”

Another move include giving Gmail recipients “the ability to unsubscribe from commercial email in one click”, and the unsubscription must be prosessed “within two days”.

Kumuran continued: “Nobody likes spam, and Gmail already includes many tools that keep unwanted messages out of your inbox.

“To add yet another protection, moving forward, we’ll enforce a clear spam rate threshold that senders must stay under to ensure Gmail recipients aren’t bombarded with unwanted messages.”

Google noted that other companies are looking to follow the same changes.

Marcel Becker, Sr. Dir. Product at Yahoo, added: “No matter who their email provider is, all users deserve the safest, most secure experience possible.

“In the interconnected world of email, that takes all of us working together.

“Yahoo looks forward to working with Google and the rest of the email community to make these common sense, high-impact changes the new industry standard.”