Google Workplace Terms of Service Update kills email outreach for business

[marcusquinn]

https://workspace.google.com/terms/use_policy.html

"You agree not, and not to allow third parties or Your End Users, to use the Services:
to generate or facilitate unsolicited bulk commercial emails; "

Massively protecting their ad-click business model from people finding new business by email.

Not your server, not your rules.

[ianhyzy]

Most services have this clause in them, the keyword is "unsolicited". nobody sending your emails wants to be sending spam

[marcusquinn]

@ianhyzy If I sent out my CV to 20 companies or people from the email addresses they publish on their website or social profiles, that's unsolicited.

Data Protection laws allow for "legitimate interest". This "unsolicited" term is more onerous, and implies they could interpret in any way they like.

Imaging sending a Bcc email you though was updating a bunch of business contacts, none of which have any email subscription, you risk having your entire productivity setup cancelled and all the disruption there is in changing provider.

@necrevistonnezr Might know more on these things?

[humptydumpty]

@marcusquinn anytime anything email related is discussed, we end up facing the one and only real issue email faces and that’s the monopoly that big tech has over it and how self hosting an email server is impossible to maintain and/or is simply not economical to do. I love email but I think it’s a lost cause to fight big tech simply because email isn’t secure from it’s conception so why bother. There are a ton of secure comm apps we could use as an alternative. I’m already seeing a plethora of alternative options for consumers on transactional sites for receipts and tracking.

[marcusquinn]

@humptydumpty business is done with email, I can't see that changing for a long time. I think best to treat it as if it were an open database, like a forum, because at any time it can be.

The bigger issue here is de-platforming risk from moving Ts & Cs goalposts, or not even knowing where the pitch lines will be for the whole game.

Just doubles-down on my belief that it's a sensible investment to manage your own email server with Cloudron and your own IP reputation with a dedicated VPS. Over time I see the same deliverability confidence with my self-hosted email, it just takes a little time and organic usage to build the reputation than Google to Google seems to have, or maybe that's just an illusion.