• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 5, 2024

DMARC vendor Valimail has debuted a service called Valimail Align to help brands comply with new sender authentication requirements from Gmail and Yahoo Mail. 

Starting in February, the new guidelines require that outgoing email by bulk senders (those sending at least 5,000 emails in a 24-hour period). By April, they must comply or risk being blocked.

Align provides SPF and DKIM alignment to meet the delivery requirements set by Google and Yahoo. 

Valimail Align also ensures:

• Streamlined Compliance reporting
• Automated Configuration
• Intelligent Task List

“Committed to simplification, Align serves those seeking compliance with the new delivery standards without requiring the journey to enforcement,” says Scott Ziegler, vice president of product at Valimail.

Going forward, senders must:

- Strongly authenticate their email using well-established best practices. Gmail argues that “this will close loopholes exploited by attackers that threaten everyone who uses email.”

- Enable easy unsubscription so that recipients can stop receiving unwanted messages from a particular sender with one click. In addition, unsubscribe requests must be processed within two days. Gmail states, “We’ve built these requirements on open standards so that once senders implement them, everyone who uses email benefits.

- Ensure they’re sending wanted email. To achieve this,, Gmail will enforce a spam rate threshold that senders must stay under to protect Gmail users from being bombarded with an unwanted messages