HACKER Q&A
📣 rcarmo

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?

  👤 gregjor Accepted Answer ✓
You 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.

👤 WantonQuantum
This 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.