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Nearly all ISPs and Mailbox providers now give their users a "Report Spam" button in the email client interface. This helps ISPs fine-tune filters, monitor user satisfaction and block objectionable senders when necessary. However, this process creates some specific problems for senders whose messages get blocked:
- Many users hit the button not just to report real spam but to stop even opt-in email that they don't want to receive anymore.
- Often, message senders don't know a recipient has reported their messages as spam or junk, or why. Although some ISPs offer feedback to the sender, the type of feedback varies.
- Each ISP also has a different kind of feedback loop – the process in which it reports the recipient’s actions to the sender. Qualifications and methods for initiating feedback loops vary, as does the information returned to the sender.
Some ISPs, such as AOL, require you to go through its whitelisting process (Read this month's "Ask EmailLabs" column on Whitelisting) before they will start sending detailed feedback with attached headers. Others do not make their feedback loops public and will send email addresses only if you ask them directly.
All that could change if ISPs adopt a new Extensible Format for Email Feedback Reports. This would put all players on the same page and simplify the feedback-mechanism process.
This format could allow ISPs without feedback loops to begin using this format without having to design a mechanism from scratch. It should also help senders easily process feedback data from multiple sources using a single protocol.
Most promisingly, this new format includes multiple explanations in reporting feedback. Instead of reporting all rejection reasons as spam complaints, they can be specified as "fraud" to indicate phishing attempts, or "opt-out" to indicate unsubscribes.
This last feature is especially useful to senders. It will allow the ISP to include an "Unsubscribe" button next to the "Report Spam" button. This lets users make a trusted unsubscribe request right through the ISP's interface.
Several ISPs are beta-testing the new format. The whole proposal is still very much a work in progress. Once the format is finalized, however, the major ISPs are expected to adopt it.
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