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0 pointsXelbair2y ago0 comments

imagine that you have an address name.surname@gmail.com

imagine that someone else has an address namesurname@gmail.com

this is very similar case to my mom's one. she constantly gets emails meant for someone else - including PII - because she has no dot in email, but the other party has a dot.

I know for sure that her's account is quite old one.

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6 comments · 4 top-level

sethammons2y ago· 2 in thread

Not for gmail though; gmail ignores those dots. But some.email@notgmail.com is normally a different inbox if the local part drops the dot.

fiddlerwoaroof2y ago

> Not for gmail though; gmail ignores those dots. But some.email@notgmail.com is normally a different inbox if the local part drops the dot.

My own mail server is configured to use a different character besides the `+` for tags and its notion of "same account" is defined by a mysql query. There's no way to know the interpretation of the local part in advance: you can apply various heuristics if you don't mind annoying people; or you can accept the email and verify it by sending an email.

chipsa2y ago

Similarly, I configured my mail server to use the system "tag.user@domain". So you can't use the same heuristic as gmail, because if you try to do an untagged email, you likely just give the tag, which doesn't correspond to a user.

sampo2y ago

> imagine that you have an address name.surname@gmail.com

> imagine that someone else has an address namesurname@gmail.com

If gmail ignores dots, it shouldn't be possible to have name.surname and namesurname as two separate gmail accounts.

forgotpwd162y ago

>because she has no dot in email, but the other party has a dot

And that's exactly the issue Gmail solves by ignoring dots. There cannot be two different accounts differing by dot(s).

InsomniacL2y ago

that makes no sense, Gmail ignores the dot so both those email addresses are the same and can only belong to one person.

if you register namesurname@gmail.com, then you also every combination of it with a dot.

n.amesurname@gmail.com

na.mesurname@gmail.com

nam.esurname@gmail.com etc..

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