Platform Update: Yahoo Email Address Classification
Email addresses provided by Yahoo have been downgraded to Risky as of September 7th, 2023.
Addresses provided by Yahoo do not meet our stringent requirements to be classified as Deliverable. Yahoo addresses previously classified as Deliverable will instead be classified as Risky, as we cannot guarantee the deliverability of these addresses. Undeliverable addresses can still be identified and are unaffected by this change.
Over the past decade, Yahoo’s ownership and policies have changed several times. At some point, Yahoo began deactivating what they consider to be "inactive email addresses". These addresses are real, but are temporarily disabled by Yahoo due to lack of user activity. Since these addresses belonged to real people, our system classified them as Deliverable; however, emails sent to them may be rejected upon delivery.
Since a more significant percentage of Yahoo addresses that appear deliverable may belong to inactive users, we are officially updating our Yahoo classification from Deliverable to Risky. This new Risky classification indicates that they may be Deliverable, but there is also a significant chance they are not.
The following providers will be impacted:
Yahoo
AT&T (aka Currently, owned by Yahoo)
While we can’t speak for our competitors, we can assure you that this change is in response to a fundamental reality of Yahoo’s handling of certain email accounts. Therefore, there is no way that any competitor can make a more informed determination about a Yahoo address. If an address we mark as Risky is marked as Deliverable somewhere else, it’s safe to assume that our competitor is simply choosing to handle the uncertainty in the address’s deliverability differently than we are.
What changed:
Addresses provided by Yahoo do not meet our stringent requirements to be classified as Deliverable. Yahoo addresses previously classified as Deliverable will instead be classified as Risky, as we cannot guarantee the deliverability of these addresses. Undeliverable addresses can still be identified and are unaffected by this change.
Why we did this:
Over the past decade, Yahoo’s ownership and policies have changed several times. At some point, Yahoo began deactivating what they consider to be "inactive email addresses". These addresses are real, but are temporarily disabled by Yahoo due to lack of user activity. Since these addresses belonged to real people, our system classified them as Deliverable; however, emails sent to them may be rejected upon delivery.
Since a more significant percentage of Yahoo addresses that appear deliverable may belong to inactive users, we are officially updating our Yahoo classification from Deliverable to Risky. This new Risky classification indicates that they may be Deliverable, but there is also a significant chance they are not.
Impact details:
The following providers will be impacted:
Yahoo
AT&T (aka Currently, owned by Yahoo)
Why don’t other verification services mark Yahoo addresses this way?:
While we can’t speak for our competitors, we can assure you that this change is in response to a fundamental reality of Yahoo’s handling of certain email accounts. Therefore, there is no way that any competitor can make a more informed determination about a Yahoo address. If an address we mark as Risky is marked as Deliverable somewhere else, it’s safe to assume that our competitor is simply choosing to handle the uncertainty in the address’s deliverability differently than we are.
Updated on: 03/14/2024
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