Gmail users “hard pass” on plan to let political emails bypass spam filters

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/gmail-users-tell-the-fec-unsolicited-political-emails-are-the-definition-of-spam/

by zinekeller • 4 years ago

51 22 4 years ago

arstechnica.com

hassanahmad• 4 years ago

This would be great. I don't want unsolicited emails from politicians, or anyone else.

nicce• 4 years ago

Google loves to introduce features which make people run away from their services?

sreevisakh2• 4 years ago

They love to introduce features that make politicians and rich people happy. The YouTube dislike button is a case in point.

asciiresort• 4 years ago

Like this one?

https://www.benzinga.com/news/21/11/24241910/this-is-how-you...

zinekeller• 4 years ago

Google's request to the FEC: https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/aos/2022-14/202214R_1.pdf

matt321• 4 years ago

I really enjoy not being part of the political process. I hope Gmail doesn't force it on me.

RugnirViking2• 4 years ago

ao@fec.gov is the email to make comment on these proposals. Be sure to cite the number and company - AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

The deadline for this one was 11th july sadly.

moioci• 4 years ago

The linked article says the deadline is Saturday, July 16.

RugnirViking2• 4 years ago

Interesting. seems like there is some conflict. I got the number from reading the emails that were already sent, several of which were replies to an email from the FEC reading (among other things):

"The Commission will accept written comments on the request during the 10-day period following the publication of the request (no later than July 11) and must issue a response no later than 60 days after the receipt of the complete advisory opinion request, that is, by August 30, 2022."

If you feel strongly about this, email anyway. Not like they can complain about spam ;)

mpalmer• 4 years ago

This is totally backwards. The orgs that craft political emails should be incentivized to create emails that are _less likely_ to be marked as spam. Exempting them all but guarantees the spamminess of these emails will get worse!

throwuxiytayq2• 4 years ago

Having jumped off the Gmail boat recently, as well as a couple other Gboats, reading news about Google has become a much more pleasant experience. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who gets unnecessary stress from stuff like this.

scotuswroteus• 4 years ago

How the heck do I jump off this gmail ship? I need a lifeboat

throwuxiytayq2• 4 years ago

Two frequently mentioned alternatives are Protonmail and Fastmail. I can personally recommend the former - free to test, imports history from Gmail, vastly more secure, UI is pretty nice if a bit slow (but I'll take the E2EE as an excuse).

2Gkashmiri• 4 years ago

mailinabox on a vps of your choice. it might not be as painless but its not impossible.

mesozoic• 4 years ago

So you're saying all I have to do is register to run for some office if I want to send as much spam as I want. Please elect me Mr. Diet Pills for Free running for your local sewage administrator.

marssaxman• 4 years ago

Washington State used to have a persistent political candidate named "Mike the Mover". In 20 years of campaigning, he never won a race - but he claimed that each $1500 filing fee bought him $150k worth of advertising.

nunez• 4 years ago

Honestly, if you read the notice [1] their legal team sent to the FCC, it just sounds like a manual process for verifying an email address as not spam that people can still one-click unsubscribe from/mark as spam. The emails would still be scanned for spam and bounced if they are spammy, at least according to the notice.

It doesn't seem like anything users would notice.

[1] https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/aos/2022-14/202214R_1.pdf

ec109685• 4 years ago

No, normally a political party that sends a large amount of unsolicited e-mail would quickly have their email delivered to bulk.

Now it’s up to each user to mark the email as spam / click unsubscribe.

dingosity• 4 years ago

Hmm. I pay $6 (or is it $10?) per month for an account that's supposed to have spam filtering turned on. GMail already allows recruiters to bypass filters; at some point you have to ask "What's the point of paying for a Google Workspace / Apps / G Suite account, if you don't get basic account services?"

To be fair, the GMail interface is largely drama-free and it's served our business well for the last couple of years. But it's very clear we're not Google's customer here (even though we pay a small fee to use the service.) That doesn't make me feel very good about Alphabet / Google.

Gmail users “hard pass” on plan to let political emails bypass spam filters

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