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Ask HN: Why is Gmail so incompetent at validating email addresses?
For the past three years I have been receiving an increasing amount of e-mails addressed to various combinations of my addresses. Not the “name+tag” stuff, but by moving the dot in “first.last” to different positions, or by adding a dot in mailboxes that were just a handle.
This has become awkward because I am getting everything from invoices (from other countries) to medical exam results with very personal data, as well as dozens of website sign-ups of various kinds - some definitely seedy and that I don’t want to be associated with at all.
I have done all the usual things: replied to threads - when they existed - pointing out mistaken addresses, tried to suss out the true recipient and get in contact with them so they update their e-mail address, etc. and have stopped short of actually going in and removing my e-mail from those services or disabling them because some were obviously important (like a mobile pre-paid account), but it’s been a decade of this sheer incompetence and I have to wonder why Google hasn’t bothered to actually fix their e-mail address handling to properly match the aliases I have defined and use a “.” as a significant character.
The thing that really gets to me is that even if the e-mail address isn’t validated, many sites just keep spamming you until you visit again, which means I get more spam every time each “mistake” happens.
Anyone have insights as to why this incompetence has lingered on?
Better still, can Google be held liable for any legal or privacy damages from this whatsoever, so they have a financial motive to fix it?
- WantonQuantum 4y agoThis is a feature of gmail. They’re not going to change it. I assume your gmail address is similar to many other people’s addresses so you’re receiving typos or mis-transcriptions. There’s not much you can do about it other than create filters to automatically delete emails from senders you don’t want.
- rcarmo 4y agoThat means I need to add a new filter every week (sometimes multiple ones a day when someone decides to go on a shopping spree).
- orbz 4y agoI’m genuinely curious as to how other people are using your email address, albeit with different usage of ‘.’ in it. It really sounds like you’re doing something off the expected paths.
- rcarmo 4y agoThere are two main examples: - I use first.last and get email for firstlast - I use <initial>last and get email for <initial>.last Then there are some really weird ones where the dot is just _randomly_ added or moved around, or where I get e-mails with multiple dots in the middle of the address (a.b.cde), etc. None of these would be accepted by a normal e-mail service unless there was a _real_ matching mailbox or alias. And this does not happen on a single mailbox, nor targeted at a specific alias. Sometimes it's as if someone were shotgunning various combinations, and I have no clue how some of those e-mails are considered valid by the senders, since _I think_ all the validation codes come into my inboxes. This also raises some questions as to whether mail addressed to me actually makes it to its destination...
- gregjor 4y agoYou don't have to use GMail. Calling a free email service "incompetent" and threatening liability action when the email addresses work exactly as described in the documentation seems a bit unhinged. I've had a GMail account since it was in beta (2003). My email address is by now all over the web. I don't experience the level of spam or mis-addressed emails you describe, nor do I experience the degree of frustration you communicate. You can handle the problems you describe with filters.
- rcarmo 4y agoJust because it is documented to work differently from every single other MTA does not mean it is "right" - free or otherwise (and one of the accounts I have this issue on is a business account, not just "free workplace"). I get 10 mis-addressed pieces of e-mail a week _at least_, and that is just not right, either - it's just simpler to leave, but I do not have the option to do that in one case.
- gregjor 4y agoI'd find a better hill to die on, personally. In the big list of things I find annoying mis-addressed emails don't get close to the top.