Whitelist (Deprecated)

What Is a Whitelist?

A whitelist was traditionally a list of trusted email senders or domains that were explicitly allowed to bypass spam filters and deliver messages directly to a user’s inbox.

In email security, the term referred to the same concept as today’s allowlist, which is a method of approving specific sources to ensure consistent message delivery.

However, “whitelist” is now considered deprecated terminology in both technical and ethical contexts, with “allowlist” being the preferred and inclusive modern equivalent.

How Whitelisting Worked

Whitelisting was commonly used in spam filtering and security systems. Administrators or users could add trusted email addresses, IPs, or entire domains to their whitelist to prevent legitimate messages from being marked as spam or rejected.

For example, a company might whitelist its email marketing provider’s domain to guarantee newsletter delivery, or whitelist internal mail gateways to avoid false positives from security scans.

Although effective for maintaining deliverability, manual whitelisting required regular updates and carried the risk of allowing unwanted mail from compromised systems if not carefully managed.

Transitioning to Allowlists

The shift from “whitelist” to “allowlist” is not only about inclusivity but also about clarity. The new term explicitly describes what the list does (it allows), which aligns better with technical accuracy and user understanding.

Organizations are encouraged to update internal documentation, policies, and systems to use “allowlist” consistently.

Whitelists and DMARCeye

While DMARCeye doesn’t rely on manual whitelisting, it helps identify which sources in your mail ecosystem consistently pass SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication.

These verified sources can safely be added to allowlists or trusted sender configurations within your mail systems. By relying on authentication data rather than static whitelists, DMARCeye helps reduce the need for manual maintenance while maintaining high deliverability and security standards.

Our AI-powered monitoring will automatically alert you of any issues, helping you take immediate action to preserve trust in your brand.