Gmail Profile Issues

[speedoflight]

I've discovered a HUGE issue with Gmail's multi profiling. If you send an email to someone who views their email in Outlook, your actual Gmail profile gets revealed to them.

Example: your Gmail user name is coolguy@gmail.com

You set up multiple Gmail profiles, particularly ones that are a little more "business" sounding, i.e. yourname@yourdomain.com

So you send an email out with the From as yourname@yourdomain.com.

The Outlook recipient sees this EXACT message:

coolguy@gmail.com; on behalf of; Robert Redford [yourname@yourdomain.com]

It reveals to them your actual gmail account name. I tested emails out to Yahoo, etc. etc. and none reveals the actual Gmail account. I looked at the headers to see what it is about Outlook that's allowing it to show that. I couldn't spot anything. So BEWARE about using Gmail's multi profile if you don't want your actual gmail acct to be revealed like that. It has this major bug/flaw.

[kaptitsky]

Yes, Gmail identifies the actual sender of the message by gmail sender name in the header of all emails it sends.

Yes, Gmail does that for a number of good reasons, including SPF support and not allowing total anonimity.

Yes, Outlook interprets that information and offers it to the end user as you have seen.

No, Gmail is not set up to host domains. If they did, they would have your info, including billing on file, and could identify senders with that information.

No, it is not a bug.

And it is only a flaw if you identify it as such. Gmail gives a heck of a lot of value for no money, and this design choice seems utterly reasonable to me.

This has been discussed before, in August.

http://www.emaildiscussions.com/...540#post332540

[speedoflight]

The features I am referring to about being able to completely use your profile to send email without revealing your base email account is already available for free with open source email clients like Squirrel Mail, Horde. And I am NOT talking about hosting domains. That's an entirely different category. I don't think it is a lot to ask to not reveal your base account information when sending email as your profile. Otherwise, why bother having a profile to send from. They have already asked you to verify through a link that you are indeed the person or have rights to the account you are sending email as.

Originally posted by kaptitsky
Yes, Gmail identifies the actual sender of the message by gmail sender name in the header of all emails it sends.

Yes, Gmail does that for a number of good reasons, including SPF support and not allowing total anonimity.

Yes, Outlook interprets that information and offers it to the end user as you have seen.

No, Gmail is not set up to host domains. If they did, they would have your info, including billing on file, and could identify senders with that information.

No, it is not a bug.

And it is only a flaw if you identify it as such. Gmail gives a heck of a lot of value for no money, and this design choice seems utterly reasonable to me.

This has been discussed before, in August.

http://www.emaildiscussions.com/...540#post332540

[kaptitsky]

Originally posted by speedoflight
The features I am referring to about being able to completely use your profile to send email without revealing your base email account is already available for free with open source email clients like Squirrel Mail, Horde. And I am NOT talking about hosting domains. That's an entirely different category. I don't think it is a lot to ask to not reveal your base account information when sending email as your profile. Otherwise, why bother having a profile to send from. They have already asked you to verify through a link that you are indeed the person or have rights to the account you are sending email as.

Yes, other mail clients don't reveal your local user name. But Gmail isn't a client, it's a system, and that system includes enforcing Sender Policy Framework and covering Google's ***.

The question isn't if you show Google that you have some access to any given e-mail address, it's assuring senders that this person is known to Google and can be identified in some way. That means senders have to be informed of your basic identification. SPF says you can't spoof addresses, that you have to vouch for them at your domain.

Gmail has implemented error and sender headers with your legitimate Gmail username, so errors come back to your Gmail account, so they can vouch for you, and for whatever other reasons they choose to do. Other e-mail clients may allow you to spoof addresses, with out even verification you have some access to mail, but the Gmail system doesn't.

Why bother having a profile? Because it does allow your original address to be included, along with your gmail address, which is great for webmail.

But if it doesn't suit your needs, it doesn't suit your needs. Use Squirrelmail or another webmail client.

[jbonet]

I recently subscribed to a mailing list from Gmail but with another address (not my Gmail address). To my surprise, I found that the messages were being sent to my Gmail address. I had to unsubscribe and subscribe again from another email service (Runbox).

[speedoflight]

You seem to think we don't understand that Gmail is a system and that it needs to cover its a%%. I don't think it's harsh at all to criticize that Gmail isn't as wonderful as it's made to sound. It has issues.

Originally posted by kaptitsky
Yes, other mail clients don't reveal your local user name. But Gmail isn't a client, it's a system, and that system includes enforcing Sender Policy Framework and covering Google's ***.

The question isn't if you show Google that you have some access to any given e-mail address, it's assuring senders that this person is known to Google and can be identified in some way. That means senders have to be informed of your basic identification. SPF says you can't spoof addresses, that you have to vouch for them at your domain.

Gmail has implemented error and sender headers with your legitimate Gmail username, so errors come back to your Gmail account, so they can vouch for you, and for whatever other reasons they choose to do. Other e-mail clients may allow you to spoof addresses, with out even verification you have some access to mail, but the Gmail system doesn't.

Why bother having a profile? Because it does allow your original address to be included, along with your gmail address, which is great for webmail.

But if it doesn't suit your needs, it doesn't suit your needs. Use Squirrelmail or another webmail client.

[marc_otten]

Originally posted by speedoflight
You seem to think we don't understand that Gmail is a system and that it needs to cover its a%%. I don't think it's harsh at all to criticize that Gmail isn't as wonderful as it's made to sound. It has issues.

Completely agree...we got to be realistic about Gmail. It's free, it's good but it has issues. The way "profiles" are implemented now make it close to useless to me...and yes, that's why I use Gmail only as a backup.

--Marc