External destinations are email addresses or domains outside your own organization that receive DMARC reports, typically aggregate (RUA) or forensic (RUF) data.
When you set up DMARC reporting, you include tags like rua= and ruf= in your DMARC DNS record, followed by one or more recipient addresses. If any of those addresses belong to another domain (not the one being protected), they’re considered external destinations.
For example, in the record:
v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@externalservice.comDMARC reports often contain sensitive information about your domain’s email activity. Because of this, the DMARC specification requires additional verification before a domain can send data to an external destination.
To authorize an external reporting address, the external domain must publish a special DNS record granting permission to receive your data. This prevents attackers or unauthorized services from collecting potentially sensitive reporting information about your domain.
Once authorized, receiving mail servers can safely send DMARC XML reports to those external destinations on your behalf.
External destinations are especially useful when you rely on a third-party DMARC analysis platform (like DMARCeye) to collect and interpret your reports.
They enable organizations to centralize monitoring without having to maintain complex reporting infrastructure.
However, if external destinations are not properly verified, your reports may fail to deliver or expose private data.
That’s why it’s critical to ensure each external destination used in your DMARC record is explicitly authorized and trusted.
DMARCeye is itself a trusted external destination for DMARC reports.
When you configure your DMARC record to send reports to DMARCeye’s reporting address, the service’s domain automatically authorizes receipt via the required DNS record, ensuring compliance and security.
Once reports are received, DMARCeye aggregates, parses, and visualizes your authentication data, giving you full insight into who’s sending email on behalf of your domain and how messages perform against SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks.
In short, external destinations make DMARC reporting possible, and DMARCeye makes that data actionable.
Sign up for a free trial of DMARCeye today to secure your email domain.
To learn more about DMARC and DMARC-related terms, explore the DMARCeye Glossary.