If you didn’t know already, we inform you that as of February 2024, Gmail, Yahoo, and AOL will no longer accept unauthenticated emails. This is particularly valuable information for email marketing specialists. We explain what it’s all about.
Reminder about unauthenticated emails
An unauthenticated email is an email that has not been verified or validated in terms of authenticity. Email authentication is important to ensure that the sender is really who they claim to be and to prevent the falsification or manipulation of the sending address. It helps particularly in combating phishing, fraud, and other malicious activities.
When Gmail and Yahoo close their doors to unauthenticated emails
Gmail and Yahoo continue their quest for ultra email security and further strengthen the protection of their users while seeking to offer a better experience. To this end, the email services have put in place a system to only accept authenticated emails.
As of February 1, 2024, every incoming message must have been authenticated via the DKIM or SPF protocols. It is possible to use one or the other, but ideally, both authentications should be in place.
Here are the new requirements for all senders emailing Gmail accounts:
- Set up DKIM or SPF authentication for your domain
- Ensure that sending domains or IP addresses have valid forward and reverse DNS records (also known as PTR records).
- Use a TLS connection to transmit emails.
- Keep spam rates indicated in Postmaster Tools below 0.10% and avoid reaching a spam rate of 0.30% or more.
- Format messages in accordance with the Internet format standard (RFC 5322).
- Do not impersonate the “From” header. Gmail will begin to use a DMARC quarantine enforcement rule.
Beware, other requirements apply to senders sending more than 5,000 messages per day to Gmail accounts.
For the sake of your email campaigns, you therefore have every interest in authenticating your message before sending it to your contact lists.
Accessing Gmail mailboxes by authenticating your emails
To get through the door of Gmail and authenticate your emails, several techniques are available to you, including:
SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
SPF allows a domain owner to specify which mail servers are authorized to send emails on its behalf. This is done by adding an SPF record to the domain’s DNS (Domain Name System).
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
DKIM uses a pair of keys (private and public) to digitally sign the headers and body of an email. The public key is published in the DNS of the sending domain, while the private key is used to generate the signature.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance)
DMARC is a policy that uses SPF and DKIM to determine the action to be taken if an email fails authentication. It also provides reports on authentication activities.
These protocols will allow you not only to specify which machines are authorized to send emails under your domain name but also to add digital signatures to messages to prove the legitimacy of their origin, and to set up policies to indicate how to handle emails that do not comply with these rules.
To learn more about Google’s new authentication requirements, check out this page. For Yahoo, it’s here.
