FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20463

MEMORANDUM

TO:

FROM:

DATE: 

SUBJECT: 

The Commission 

Office of the Commission Secretary VFV 

July 14, 2022

AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) 215 individual 

comments

Attached are 215 individual comments on AO 2022-14 (Google LLC).

Attachment
From: Franklin Yonkers

To: AO

Subject: Allowing unfiltered political email

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 10:17:43 PM

Absolutely anything un requested is SPAM. Enough junk, including phishing attacks and other malware, is also

slipping through the cracks.

I'll be giving my US House Representative a call on this. People running for office are already illegally sending

text messages. 

Filtering unsolicited political messages is not censorship.

Regards,

Frank Yonkers

Apex, North Carolina

Frank's mobile unit
From: Bernard Lidicky

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) - deny the request please

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 1:28:34 AM

Dear FEC,

I recommend denying the request for Google to deliver political emails directly to mailboxes.

Their proposal argues it would "improve the user experience of Gmail users”. As Gmail user,

I disagree with this statement. Getting more messages I consider spam is NOT improving my

experience.

Please keep the restrictions as they are.

Best wishes,

Bernard
From: Cypher Dragon

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) - NO to campaign ad pilot program

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 1:22:02 AM

This should be denied on the simple fact that it is not OPT-IN. There is

absolutely no reason to force email (or physical mail, but I digress) on

anyone that has not explicitly asked for these mails to be delivered.

This simple fact should be enough to immediately deny the request on the

face of it. However, there are also plenty of privacy and security

concerns on top of that fact that only add further weight to make it

clear that such ideas are DOA.

Sincerely,

A concerned voting citizen
From: Tabor Wells

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) - No to Campaign ad pilot Program.

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:04:41 PM

Hello,

As a person who has had a Gmail account since before public launch of the Gmail service, I have an email address

that is frequently used by other people who mistakenly think my email address is theirs.

This results in thousands of messages per month (both political and non-political) that are not intended for me.

Many of these are already caught by Google's spam filters but I spend a great deal of time reporting the remainder as

spam and/or unsubscribing.

Please do not allow political campaigns to bypass these restrictions.

Political organizations already regularly share email addresses between each other and it's impossible to fully

unsubscribe yourself. I've received many political emails over the years that don't even offer an option. Or require

you to login to an account not in my control to adjust my email preferences.

My spam blocking is the only thing I have left to keep my mailbox that I've had for well over a decade usable. This

proposal will degrade my right to privacy and to choose who I wish to communicate with in my email.

Thank you

Tabor Wells
From: Jamal Qureshi

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 11:59:14 PM

Unsolicited email is spam no matter who is sending it. Deny this.

Jamal Qureshi
From: Michael Musta

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:02:47 AM

 Request you deny Google's request to do a pilot program where campaign ads go to peoples inboxes and not

through their spam filters.

Thank you,

Michael Musta
From: Jack Merwin

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:26:05 PM

The application should be denied. When a user creates an email account, there should be a reasonable expectation

that any mass mailings that user did not specifically sign up for should be directed to a spam filter until the user

whitelists that sender. Allowing unasked-for political mail is in no way deserving of special exemption. This will

just create more annoyance for the owners of gmail accounts and provide no benefit to the political discourse of this

country.

Best,

Jack Merwin
From: Joe Romeo

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 2:36:32 PM

Absolutely not. This is a terrible idea that would open the floodgates to even more spammy and abusive political

advertisements. No.
From: Robert Parker

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 4:08:22 PM

Absolutely not. Spam is spam and political ads are the worst form of spam! Deny this!!!

Robert Parker
From: Robert Parker

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 4:08:24 PM

Absolutely not. Spam is spam and political ads are the worst form of spam! Deny this!!!

Robert Parker 

Sr. Information Systems Engineer

Communication and Collaboration Services

Audio Video Engineering
From: Dale Price

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:07:15 PM

To whom it may concern,

I am a long-term Gmail user (my first account was created with a beta invite when that was the only way to access

the service). I would like to voice my opposition to Google’s proposal that political emails be allowed to bypass

spam filters.

This form of email messaging is often manipulative, dishonest and seeks to exploit people financially, much like

everything else that gets sent to spam.

Thank you,

Dale Price
From: Patrick Hogan

To: AO

Subject: Comment in opposition to AO 2022-14

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:53:38 AM

Dear Chairman Dickerson:

 I respectfully ask that FEC deny AO 2022-14. Already the American public receives a deluged of mail and phone

calls from these organizations, letting them fill email inboxes as well is just an unnecessary aggravation. Individuals

who wish to receive such messages are already free to sign-up or white list the sender.

Thank you.

Patrick Hogan
From: z93xtg105h

To: AO

Subject: Comment on AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 10:06:41 PM

Unsolicited email is spam, regardless of the source. No email should be treated differently just because the sender is

registered as a political committee.

While some people have options besides Gmail for receiving email, others do not. As well, granting this request

likely would start a trend that leads to political committees and individual politicians to demand such special

treatment be required of all email providers.
From: Ben Lewis

To: AO

Subject: Comment to Google"s Request for Opinion of Pilot Program

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:50:14 AM

Dear FEC,

I am writing in response to articles I've seen about Google's proposal to allow political messages to bypass their

spam filters. As a concerned citizen, I highly believe that this is a wrong course of action for the committee to

approve. At the end of the day, I - and likely the majority of Americans - do *not* want this in our inboxes. That

alone should be sufficient reason to reject this, but there are concrete reasons to reject as well.

During election seasons, it seems like every other message in my inbox is filled with emails from various political

campaigns. Personally, I have no interest in these unsolicited offers - the very definition of spam. If they were to

show up in my inbox, I would just delete them. However, I imagine there are many out there that are vulnerable to

the typical subject lines of these emails (e.g. "We need your help now", "donate 5 dollars today", etc.), especially

elderly persons who are already vulnerable to scams. While political spending is obviously better than scams, I don't

believe that it is necessary to be bombarded on our emails.

While obviously there is a right to free speech, these campaigns won't have their speech limited by being relegated

to the spam filter. They are welcome to send flyers through the mail, run advertisements on websites, run TV ads,

get billboards, and more. I simply believe that they shouldn't have a right to directly poison the email inbox, a place

that nearly everyone checks multiple times a day. The balance needs to be struck between free speech and our ability

to have a small measure of respite from the bombardment of political ads, which are already near-constant during

election seasons. Additionally, there's a high probability that direct political emails are rife for abuse and scams.

While it costs something to send a flyer, the nearly-free email route means that a scammer could set up a purported

website for a political figure, send out emails, and steal banking details or funds from the unsuspecting without too

many people raising an eyebrow. By imposing a modest cost on the political process, it helps to tamp down some of

the spam.

While there are many more arguments to be made, I urge you to deny this request from Google as the terrible idea it

is.

Respectfully,

Benjamin Lewis

Beavercreek, Ohio
From: David J

To: AO

Subject: Comment to Google"s Request for Opinion on Pilot Program

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 3:22:37 PM

Dear FEC,

I recently discovered that Google has been asking for guidance relating to a decision on their part to institute a pilot

program wherein political e-mails are allowed to bypass spam filters.

I am wholeheartedly against this as nearly every political e-mail that I have ever received has been unsolicited and

unwanted. In a rational world, when I make a political contribution I can choose to receive e-mails from that

particular organization or candidate, but what really happens is that my e-mail address is immediately shared to

dozens if not hundreds of campaigns in states that I neither reside or have any voting power in. Similarly,

registering with a political party at the state level opts me into receiving e-mails from any candidate that the state

party chooses to and doesn’t give me the power to opt out. This leads to me receiving dozens or even hundreds of

unsolicited e-mails and text messages each year.

Adding to the insult of lack of consent is the injury of me having to manually delete or opt-out on a candidate by

candidate or program by program basis. This speaks nothing to the fact that the subject lines are often vague or

misleading and make the e-mail look like it’s part of a scam.

Unsolicited political e-mail is a plague that has been unleashed in recent years. Allowing these political e-mails to

bypass spam filters would make it even worse. It’s already gotten to the point that I had to create a special e-mail

address just for political contributions so that I can ignore all the junk that they send. In addition to preventing

google from allowing political e-mails to bypass spam filters I would also like to have more consumer protections

against the sale or other dissemination of our e-mail addresses without our consent.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

-David Jansen

San Jose, CA
From: DJ

To: AO

Subject: Google AO for Political SPAM exemption.

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:04:09 PM

This is a Horrible idea!

The last thing our country needs is for private citizens to be inundated with political trash.

--

David Swahlan

Albuquerque, NM
From: Doug Bodmann

To: AO

Subject: Google bypassing filters for political emails

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:57:17 PM

To whom it may concern:

This is a really dumb idea. If people want political information they can opt on with a variety of means. Why do we

think unsolicited e-mail is a good thing? Please reject this idea with prejudice.

Thank you,

Doug bodmann

Sent from my iPad
From: William Furr

To: AO

Subject: Google Election Spam Email Request Feedback

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:16:35 AM

Regarding Google's request for an advisory opinion on treatment of political campaign emails in 202214R_1, please

advise them to continue treating unsolicited email as unsolicited email i.e. spam.

I receive substantial amounts of unsolicited email and text messages from political campaigns. They seem to be

completely without scruple in acquiring and using email addresses and cell phone numbers without the consent or

opt-in of the recipients. These messages that were never signed up for are rightly considered spam aka unsolicited

email.

Regards,

William Furr

Cambridge, MA
From: Dave

To: AO

Subject: Google failing to mark political email as spam

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:46:42 PM

To whom it may concernI would like to express my objection to the idea of allowing Google to

not mark unsolicited political email as spam. While I'm sure Google

would benefit from such a decision financially, this benefit would come

at the cost of time, effort, patience, frustration, and possible fraud

inflicted on their user base, of which I am one.

One of the chief benefits of Gmail has always been it's stellar spam

protection - protecting users against phishing attacks, mailbombs,

infected attachments, and other email borne nasties. Opening up a hole

like this would increase the number of these kind of attacks against

users to their detriment. Appeals for money roll in from all corners of

the internet, and if they can be dressed up as politically motivated or

related does that make them pass Google's validity test?

The other real danger is that of monitoring - who decides that a given

email is a political message or a scam? How long before the first

accusation that Google is favoring one party's email over another?

(Never mind - that accusation has already been made.) Or isn't giving

equal access to all parties, no matter how fringe? Is email from the

Proud Boys considered political? How about from the American Nazi

Party? Or the American Communist Party? Who decides?

The FCC set up a Do Not Call list as a means of managing telephone

spam. While the phone companies have utterly failed in any meaningful

effort to comply (see STIR/SHAKEN), the single biggest oversight in that

program is that it exempts political calls. And during election season,

home phones in battleground states can become nearly unusable as a

result. Please don't make the same mistake with email.

The general definition of spam is Unsolicited Commercial Email. While

political email may not be considered commercial (though that's

debatable, given the quantity that appeals for funds) it is Unsolicited,

and usually unwanted. and the more tools we have to prevent the

intrusion of unwanted, unneeded and unsolicited interruptions to our

lives the better.

Allowing Google to exempt political email from being flagged as spam

would be one of the absolute worst decisions that the FEC could make.

Please, do not let Google turn Gmail into the spam cesspit that the

phone service has become.

Thank you.

Dave Bell

Atascocita TX
From: Carl T.

To: AO

Subject: Google Gmail political emails

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:06:28 PM

NO! I control my inbox. I'm not interested in emails that are only meant to sling dung at their opposition. It's a

horrible waste of my time. And a huge security risk.

If Google is allowed to let political emails bypass my spam filters. I will promptly be deleting/closing my gmail

account.
From:

To: AO

Subject: Google request to trial all political email to bypass spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 5:43:42 PM

The FEC should recommend against Google's request to trial all political email to bypass spam filters.

Allowing exemptions such as this will create more burdens on email users and has the potential to open user's

computer systems to malign attacks.

If Google does this other email providers will undoubtedly follow suit.

At minimum, if this is approved there must be a prominent way to opt out of political emails and opt outs and

unsubscribes must be enforced.

Thank you,

Bill
From: Hunter

To: AO

Subject: Google spam filter tweeks

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 1:26:50 PM

Political spam is still spam. If you have the power please block Google from allowing people to pay to deliver

known spam. The ongoing race to the bottom rhetoric means that Google would be allowing the worst of humanity

flood our inboxes. Just say no.
From: h & m

To: AO

Subject: Google

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:56:14 AM

Re: Google's request for a pilot program that would allow political committees to bypass spam filters.

Any and all political communications should go straight to trash. I am totally opposed to Google allowing this

garbage to get to our inboxes.

Nice day,

Alice
From: BLB

To: AO

Subject: Google

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 4:31:48 PM

Please ... Please ... Please... do not allow political emails to bypass spam filters.

BLB
From: Ray Mond

To: AO

Subject: Google

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:50:57 AM

Re: Google's request for a pilot program that would allow political committees to bypass spam filters.

As a Gmail user with 4 Gmail accounts, my strong preference is that any person or entity associated with politics is

not able to bypass spam filters. I do not want politically driven lies and innuendos filling my inboxes.

Respectfully yours,

Raymond R.
From: Jon

To: AO

Subject: Google"s request to ok political spam

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 8:11:58 PM

Please - Do not allow Google to send spam from political parties. I already get too much spam that slips by their

filters. I really don't need additional unsolicited crap from the PAC-of-the-Day from any party.

Unless Google wants to pay me $10 per email then I don't want it, don't need it, won't read it.

If there's a better place to register my thoughts- Please let me know.

Regards
From: Melrose Nolan

To: AO

Subject: In regards to Googles request for public opinion on pilot programs

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 5:57:51 PM

I request that the FCC reject Googles offer. We get enough spam and junk mail from political groups and politicians

campaigning to fill landfills. Keep that out of my inboxes, entirely. I don't need a bunch of yelling campaigning

candidates screaming for money, support, and signage on my property, in my email box. Do the whole nation a

favor and leave the internet email systems OUT of the political equation, entirely.

Signed,

Melisa M. Nolan. Resident of Michigan, and active voter.
From: Thoma

To: AO

Subject: No Political Spam

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 10:31:36 PM

Please do NOT allow unsolicited political email to bypass spam filters.

Email inboxes belong to USERS, not politicians. Spam filters are there

to give USERS some control over the flood of unsolicited email so

important messages don't get lost amidst all the clutter we didn't ask for.
From: Jim Remington

To: AO

Subject: NO to Google"s request to allow political emails to bypass SPAM filters

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 10:08:01 PM

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I strongly object to political emails from any party getting special

exemption from spam filters, and urge you to deny Google's request to

do so.

I made several donations to Democratic candidates during the 2020

election, and immediately started getting emails from all over the

country, from candidates whom I had never heard of.

This is SPAM, just like advertising spam. Fortunately, Google's spam

filter worked to identify these, and place them automatically in the

Spam folder where I can look at them or delete them if I wish.

I do not want political spam to appear in my inbox.

Thank you for considering my point of view.

Respectfully,

Stephen Remington
From: Michael Aulagne

To: AO

Subject: political committees to bypass spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 6:47:15 AM

Please do not allow this.

It's bad enough dealing with spam nonsense now, this will be far far worse than robo calls.

Again please do not allow Google to allow campaign/political emails to bypass spam filters

Thank you!
From: Timothy Linn

To: AO

Subject: Political email IS spam

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 9:42:46 PM

Do not permit Google’s scheme to force unsolicited political email on users. It is the very definition of spam.

Thank you.
From: Tom

To: AO

Subject: Political emails should not be exempt from spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:39:04 AM

To whom it may concern,

Google’s request to allow political email to be exempt from spam filters is ridiculous. You shouldn’t even have to

guess what citizens think of this, because you should already know what people think of the same exemption to the

National Do Not Call registry. Personally, I have yet to hear anyone (who isn’t a politician) who thinks that that

exemption is good.

I can understand that it would be a good idea for OFFICIAL government messages, from government agencies, to

be exempt from the Do Not Call Registry and from spam filters. But why should any crazy person who creates a

political party or campaign be able to call me or email me, with no way for me to prevent it? There is literally an

organization of people who think that the EARTH IS FLAT!! I’m fine with them being able to form an organization

and continue to be idiots (or rather, I understand that there’s no reasonable way to prevent it). But why should they

be able to get special permission to spread their idiocy by spamming people?!

I’m not sure what Google’s goal is with requesting permission for this hair brained scheme, but I can assure you that

it is not something that is desired by us, the people who receive email through Gmail.

Sincerely,

Tom Panning

Gmail user
From: Bill Justesen

To: AO

Subject: Political Mail Bypassing Spam Filters at Google

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:34:12 PM

The proposal to allow political email to bypass spam filters at Google, or elsewhere, is an abhorrent idea. Hyperbole,

misinformation, fear, uncertainty, and doubt are the modus operandi of political advertising. I don't invite that kind

of riffraff into my inbox. Please don't force it there.

Make it a good day. It's your choice.

Regards,

Bill Justesen
From: Ben Funk

To: AO

Subject: Political spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:48:32 AM

Do not allow Google to whitelist all political messages. It's garbage and I don't want it.
From: Joseph Schaffer

To: AO

Subject: RE: Advisory Opinion Request (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 3:33:40 PM

I am 100% not in favor of granting Google or any other email provider permission to allow political emails to

bypass my spam filters that I have spent years adding to.

I already deal with plenty of spam and political messaging from all sorts of other avenues. I am entirely not ok with

political emails being forced into my inbox.

The first time I see a political email pushed into my inbox bypassing any spam filter is the first time I stop using that

email service.

Regards,

--

Joe Schaffer
From: G

To: AO

Subject: RE: Google"s Request To Allow Political Emails To Bypass Spam Filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:43:39 AM

Dear Federal Election Commission,

Please deny Google's, or any other email provider, the request to send political emails to my inbox after bypassing

spam filters. I don't want to see these for any reason at all.

Frankly, with as much data as is collected through interactions on the internet, email included, it's likely Americans

will again see a touch of Cambridge Analytica when these emails go directly to inboxes. We are already a divided

people and we don't need to add fuel to this fire. Kindly warn them off their efforts.

Yours truly,

Galen Sinnock

Gresham, OR
From: Kevin Kostolo

To: AO

Subject: re: UNSOLICITED POLITICAL EMAIL

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:50:46 PM

I DON'T WANT UNSOLICITED POLITICAL EMAIL IN MY GMAIL INBOX!

I DON'T WANT **ANY** UNSOLICITED EMAIL IN MY GMAIL INBOX!
From: Willard Seehorn

To: AO

Subject: unsolicited political email

Date: Tuesday, July 12, 2022 7:48:50 PM

While I can understand that unsolicited political email are apt to be sent there should be a way to block them if I

don't want to get them. I have no obligation to receive -- no, be forced to receive -- email I do not want to get. If

makers of penis enlargement devices tried to claim they have the right to force me to get their email they would be

met with scorn.

I should be able to set my email programs to block email I do not wish to receive. The claim that "the bully down

the street (Gmail) won't let me do what I want" pales when compared to my right to tell Gmail that I don't want to

get the (to me) spam.

I urge you to block the Republican's attempt to force Gmail to deliver their unwanted messages.

Willard Seehorn
From: Amy Roos

To: AO

Subject: Unsolicited political emails ARE spam!

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:41:14 AM

Unsolicited political emails are already a HUGE problem! Please don't encourage their use by allowing Gmail to put

them directly into my inbox! Why is it OK to get unsolicited emails from a politician and not from a business?

Amy

--

Amy Roos
1

From: John Watts >

Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 12:55 AM

To: AO

Subject: AOR 2022-14

To whom it may concern,

Allowing a class of senders to bypass spam protections by default is a radical change in the functionality of gmail,

possibly unprecedented among email providers. According to the proposal, users would only be able to protect

themselves from receiving these unsolicited emails on a per‐sender basis. Therefore, in stark contrast to AO 2018‐11

(Microsoft) it does not resemble "other commercial offerings by Microsoft, including varying packages and prices to

different types of users, and free workshops and trainings tailored to specific types of customers." This casts doubt on

whether it is truly a business decision.

There is every reason to believe Google is not making this decision for business reasons, or at least not the stated ones.

The timing makes it appear quite transparently to be a response to the proposed BIAS Emails Act and as a result an

attempt to avoid regulation or possibly even to win the favor of the particular party pushing this bill. Enacting this

change would enhance the deliverability of one party's emails drastically and disproportionately. Hardly nonpartisan.

The NCSU study https://arxiv.org/pdf/2203.16743v1.pdf

<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farxiv.org%2Fpdf%2F2203.16743v1.pdf&data=05

%7C01%7Cao%40fec.gov%7C0ea535280eb2467a0cd508da648bf039%7Cee91fa706c9d45e0bb084a355de91010%7C0%7

C1%7C637932849509872089%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1ha

WwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=HHh4KXesQZSCuWP%2F5ODH1r7g0CenIjaieeMa8c7HPlI%3D&reser

ved=0>  does show evidence that before a user expresses a preference for specific political messages gmail is far more

likely to mark one party's messages as spam than another's, which is a concern. However, an alternate explanation could

be that those messages share common traits with what a typical user would mark as spam which the system honors

until the user expresses a preference. Changing the status quo by disabling spam filtering for an entire class of email

with no user choice is a contribution to whichever candidates engage in spam‐like behaviors.

To at least reduce the size of the potential partisan contribution from this change to both the status quo and the

industry standard application of spam filtering, users should be able to re‐apply spam filtering to the entire class of

political messages with a single choice, not a per‐sender choice.

Thank you for your time and attention,

John W

From: Steve T

To: AO

Subject: Advisory Opinion (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:42:32 PM

I have zero interest in allowing Google to put their thumb on the scale to bypass Gmail spam filters for political

purposes.

That they would ask for this power is astonishing.

I do not want to receive political spam emails of any type whatsoever, and certainly not those that are blessed by our

digital overlords.

Steve Topletz
From: Dave Mrus

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022 14 Google LLC

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 1:47:31 AM

FEC

Appreciate not empowering the intake bypass of spam filters to engage gmail users with

political correspondence.

A right to privacy, the ability to define and have some control is important.

It’s akin to a “do not call” directory override.

Sincerely,

David Mrus
From: David Rutan

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) - No to Campaign ad pilot Program.

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 6:43:50 PM

When donating to a politician you end up getting added to countless email lists. Unfortunately

that generates a huge number of emails on a daily basis - all with urgent messaging.

For a tech-savvy user it’s not terribly difficult to unsubscribe from the many lists you’ve been

unknowingly added to. This is simply annoying.

For the novice and average user their inbox is inundated on a daily basis and it takes a lot of

time and mental energy to delete or review each message.

Allowing these messages to circumvent junk filters is a horrible idea.

Until these political campaigns become more responsible with their addition of us on multiple

mailing lists I strongly disagree with Google’s ad pilot program.

- David Rutan
From: Chris Guinnup

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) - NO to political spam

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:23:43 PM

Dear FEC,

There is little precedent to allow an entire category of actors to bypass provisions against

abuse of a service -- which is what spam filtering is at its core. To elaborate, users must be

able to meaningfully access DESIRED email correspondence for the service to be useful.

Without spam filtering, many inboxes would be buried in a deluge of unwanted spam, which

is prolific due to the incredibly low cost of sending emails. If it becomes difficult to find the

desired emails, the value of the service sharply declines. Because spam harms the value of

email, increases costs for email providers, and often violates the social expectation of

consensual correspondence, it is an abuse of the service.

On top of that, to absolve political actors specifically is absurd. Campaigns are known to

cross-pollinate mailing lists without explicit consent and send masses of attention-grabbing

solicitations -- which sounds a lot like a typical spam operation.

For these reasons and more, please advise Google AGAINST letting political mailings bypass

spam filters.

Chris Guinnup

Software Engineer and concerned citizen

Baltimore, MD
From: Dennis Thompson

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:54:06 PM

Please do not allow political email to bypass spam filters.

Any idiot can be a politician. The last thing anyone needs is to be

getting spam from the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene. And that would

just be the National politicians. If you include all the state,

county, and city politicians/candidates gmail could be rendered

useless.

If you have to do this please require that the email header require a

field clearly marked "political". Then at least everyone can add

their own SPAM filter.
From: Chris Shaffer

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:11:35 AM

Please do not allow Google to let political emails bypass spam filters. Political parties and

groups should be subject to the same filtering as everyone else. Don't open the firehose to let

spam into our mailboxes!

Chris Shaffer

From: Balasubramanian Narasimhan

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 8:29:12 PM

Dear FEC,

Please do not allow Google's request to bypass spam filters. This is an atrociously bad idea

that will cause much harm.

Sincerely,

Balasubramanian Narasimhan
From: Jill Fain Lehman

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:26:01 AM

Unequivocally no, unless and until Google can prove -- in the mathematical sense -- that it

will filter out both hate speech and false claims.
From: William Marshall

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 8:27:34 PM

On the proposal to allow political messaging to bypass SPAM filters. Absolutely no. A

thousand times no. Political messaging accounts for a large amount of the spam that is

captured in my spam filter on Gmail, and allowing political messaging to bypass that filter

would make my Gmail account unusable. This would be doubly true during campaign season,

which is effectively about 30 percent of the time, nowadays. I would absolutely leave my

Gmail account behind immediately if this were put in place, as would most users, in my

estimation. This proposal is one of the worst ideas conceived of by anyone in modern times.

No. No. No.

William Marshall
From: Bethany Geleskie

To: AO

Subject: AOR 2022-14 Comment

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:50:10 AM

Dear FEC,

I am concerned by Google's request to allow political candidates' emails to bypass spam filters

in their Gmail service, and I hope that, ultimately, it will not be approved.

Political emails (and mailers and calls and texts) are already nuisances to which anyone who

registers to vote are subject. The very act of registering places a person on these mailing lists

automatically, usually without even asking whether the person in question wishes to be added

to the list. I, for one, never wished to be added to any politician's mailing list, but as a

registered voter I find my phone and mailbox under a constant barrage from political

candidates who usually offer hyperbolic assessments of the danger in failing to give money to

their campaigns. I would rather not, and while this is not the issue under consideration here, I

believe that denying Google's request could act as a starting point to allow a restructuring that

requires people to opt in to receiving politicians' communications, rather than finding

themselves automatically subject to them by the simple act of being a registered voter.

Thank you for opening this matter up for comment, and for taking the time to read mine.

Sincerely,

Bethany

---

Bethany Geleskie, MLS

she/her/Ms
From: Sean Copeland

To: AO

Subject: Comment on allowing Google to bypass spam filters for political ads/campaign donations

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:46:44 AM

As an Apple shareholder I am writing to encourage you to allow Google to infuriate its users / further ruin

its reputation / actually do evil / further damage civilization by allowing political ads/campaign donations to

bypass spam filters.

If you could possibly make sure Google shared legal liability for the real world results - like the successful

solicitation of campaign donations from foreign nationals - it would be greatly appreciated.

Sean Copeland

From: zendarva

To: AO

Subject: Comment to Google"s Request for Opinion on Pilot Program.

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:57:54 PM

The reason to be able to mark an email spam is that I do not wish to see future emails from

that sender, or similar emails. 

When I say I do not want emails from a particular sender, Google (or any email provider)

should probably trust my opinion on the matter, rather than telling me "No, we know better

than you what you want; here, have a political fundraising email!

Simply because you have my gmail address does not entitle you to reach my inbox, and the

idea that political parties feel they are entitled to my attention is laughable at best, insulting at

worst. Is the next step to legally require that I answer political phone calls?

with utmost irritation,

James Dunston
From: Lance Snyder

To: AO

Subject: Comment to Google"s Request for Opinion on Pilot Program

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:24:56 PM

I am commenting on Google proposal to allow political groups to bypass normal spam filters

instead forcing this kind of content into the primary email box unsolicited.

I am absolutely against this practice. First off there is the insanely short comment period you

have introduced. Proposed Jul 1st, made public Jul 6th, put out for comment on the 8th and

you expected to close the comment period Jul 11th. This reeks of political end-around where

you acquiesce to Google whatever they want. Now it has been "extended" but only to the 16th.

Why are you so afraid of comments on this? Im guessing you have made up your mind and

don't want any sort of tangible backlash. Why not allow 30 days for commenting on

something that is this important?

I have political views which I will express when I feel like it, I don't need groups that have

paid Google for access to be able to spam my inbox anytime they like looking for a hand out.

If I want to donate to a campaign or group I can already do that with the meddling of Google.

If I want to read emails from specific groups I can do that on my own. And when you allow

this (being bi-partisan both parties gain) you will create not only a monster of spam I shouldn't

have to deal with but you let bad actors who will spoof everything they can with yet another

entry point to scam American citizens. And I can tell you right now Google is going to

promise the world on security this won't happen.. but it will. You got choices, you can tell

Google to packsand and not to come back with this idea again or you can approve it which

will lead to Google profiting significantly for years to come while American citizens have to

deal with the fallout. This choice is upto you.

LS
From: Todd Mansfield

To: AO

Subject: Comment to Google"s request

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:17:17 PM

Dear FEC,

Google is asking for the FEC's opinion on whether Google can institute a pilot program to

bypass spam filters for email sent on behalf of political candidates.

This would be corrupting for two reasons.

(1) It would be viewed as a valuable service to politicians offered by Google. No good could

come of this.

(2) The physical mailbox at my home already gets voluminous political advertising, which

gives me a good opportunity to examine the type of speech promulgated by our

representatives. The quality of the speech is exceedingly low. So low that voters acting on it

would have a random chance at best of making our republic better by casting votes based on it.

Todd Mansfield
From: J Rifis

To: AO

Subject: Do not allow political mass emailing

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:16:25 AM

Please we don't need this garbage. The overall method of politics is no longer compromise and

progress but self-righteous preening and grab for power.

-- 

JR

From: Julian Lamphear

To: AO

Subject: Don’t you dare let Google start sending political info directly to my inbox

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:03:46 AM

I already get enough spam from politicians I’ve never even heard of, and it’s bad enough that I

get those awful Gmail ads labeled as emails in my fucking inbox every day. If y’all could

literally do your goddamn jobs for once instead of caving to moneyed interests every fucking

time it would be real nice! If not, maybe an organized campaign of robocalls and spam

directly to your staff’s emails will at least vindicate me and the 98% of people who agree.

Julian
From: Cody Jackson

To: AO

Subject: Don"t approve Google"s request to allow political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:10:26 AM

I am strongly against allowing Google to allow the free-flow of political emails. I already get

dozens of text messages from political parties that I have to block; I can't imagine how bad it

would be if my email's spam filter decided to not identify political emails. Considering how

easy it is to make new email addresses, there is almost no way to manually block unwanted

political emails. I can't see a legitimate reason for Google to do this, except it creates yet

another opportunity to make money and to curry favor with the political parties.

Sincerely,

Cody Jackson
From: Julie Hardesty

To: AO

Subject: Gmail spam bypass

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:27:08 AM

Please, just no. 

Please do not allow political committee emails to bypass the spam filters on Gmail. I do not

want political related emails delivered directly to my inbox. It will open a Pandora's box of

fundraising appeals and once you get one, you end up with hundreds because of the rapid sale

of lists that have tracked opens. As it currently happens, I unsubscribe to political emails that

end up in my junk folder. If they are allowed to proceed directly to my in box, I will report

them as spam.

Thank you.
From: Andrew Faehnle

To: AO

Subject: Gmail

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:20:08 PM

Esteemed FEC,

As a private citizen, I should have the power to ignore those who I wish to ignore. Please

don't let Google/Alphabet force feed me political fundraising I dont want to read. Are they

going to vet every would-be, fly-by-night PAC to ensure it is not a scam? I doubt it. The

decision would put many people at risk of fraud and scams.

Regards,

Andrew Faehnle

From: Holly Devine

To: AO

Subject: Google and political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:10:11 AM

No, I do not support lifting the spam filtering for this type of email.

Holly Devine
From: Rachel Sortino

To: AO

Subject: Google Political email Pilot

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:26:50 AM

Good morning,

I would like to express my opposition to Google's political email pilot program. I already get

more political emails than I care to deal with, even with clicking unsubscribe on most of the

emails I get, I see no benefit to the average citizen in making it even easier for political

campaigns to blast us with even more divisive and questionably true rhetoric. We are exposed

to political ads everywhere we go for the 6+ months leading up to every election, we should

not make it any easier for them to access our inbox.

Thank you for your time,

Rachel
From: Debra Scott

To: AO

Subject: Google political email request

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:49:24 AM

Please NO on this request. My inbox is carefully curated and political emails don't make the

cut. Mass emails are spam no matter who is sending them and should not get an exemption.

Debra Scott

St Charles, MO
From: Mike McClure

To: AO

Subject: Google Political Emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:22:03 AM

No.

Michael McClure

Sent from my iPhone
From: Beth n Al-Bert

To: AO

Subject: google proposal for pilot program to allow political spam thru spam filter

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:09:01 AM

I'm confident that if google proposal to allow political spam thru spam filter was allowed the

vast majority of receivers would need to waste time to stop receiving them and increase

computer rage.

Please stop this before it starts.

bert
From: Michael Conlin

To: AO

Subject: Google proposal to allow political emails to bypass spam filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:00:47 AM

FEC:

I am writing this email with respect to the Google proposal to allow political emails to bypass spam filters.

I vigorously OBJECT to the proposal.

Kind regards,

Michael Conlin

Reston VA
From: Kathy Graham

To: AO

Subject: Google proposal

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:00:19 AM

Hello,

I am. Google mail user and I STRONGLY oppose their request to make political emails be exempt from spam

folders.

Political campaigns are the worst offenders already when it comes to spam mailing me without my permission. Even

when they remove you at your request, a month later they start up again and the answer is always “we don’t know

how that happened”.

I am so tired of the actual citizens coming last in the political process, do NOT give Google permission to do this.

Kind regards,

Kathy Graham.

Sent from my iPhone

From: James Sterrett

To: AO

Subject: Google should not allow political email to bypass spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:10:09 PM

Please, please, please, do not permit Google to allow political email

and exemption to spam filters.

The very fact that they are asking shows they know it's a bad idea.

--

James Sterrett
From:

To: AO

Subject: Google

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:57:54 AM

Please do not let google send me unsolicited political ads.

Nathan

Sent from my iPhone



From: Audra Russell

To: AO

Subject: Google"s proposed political email plan

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 6:28:20 AM

This is a terrible idea! As if our domestic politics wasn't polarized enough, now Google wants

to pump the toxic sludge that is political email right into our inbox? To quote Nancy Reagan,

"Just say no!" DO NOT CHANGE HOW SUCH EMAIL IS CURRENTLY CLASSIFIED! It

is spam -- unwanted, unsolicited and unwelcome!

Audra Russell

White Plains, NY
From: Jonathan McAtee

To: AO

Subject: No Gmail Political Spam

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:02:38 AM

Google, or any other email service, should not be allowed to ease political spam filters. There’s enough garbage and

grifters out there as it is.

 

Sent from my iPhone

Jonathan E. McAtee
From: Anna Miller

To: AO

Subject: No Lifting Of Spam Filters for Political Committees

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:16:43 AM

Dear FEC,

I'm writing to share a comment about the proposed lifting of spam filters for political

committees by Google. I strongly oppose this measure.

Best.

Anna Miller
From:

To: AO

Subject: No on Google sending political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:52:46 AM

NO. Please DO NOT allow Google to send political emails.

Elizabeth Neeld

Chattanooga Tenn 37405
From: Klemm1

To: AO

Subject: No on Political ads bypassing Google spam filter

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 6:22:43 AM

Please vote no on allowing political ads bypassing Google spam filters. If I, or any user, wants

political ads we’ll sign up for them. I want to be able to opt out of this if I want to. Not very

American to be forced to get political ads even if I support a particular candidate or not.

K Clemmer
From: Mark Caplinger

To: AO

Subject: No on political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 6:37:33 AM

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/07/gmail-users-tell-the-fec-unsolicited-politicalemails-are-the-definition-of-spam/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Dear FEC

I read about the proposal by Google to allow political emails to bypass spam filters. I think

this is a terrible idea, I don’t want that. Just say no, please, and thank you.

Mark Caplinger

Sent from my iPad
From: Katie Palmer Finn

To: AO

Subject: No on political spam

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:56:30 AM

Are you kidding me? No no no to Google's request to give unfettered access to political

messages direct to our inboxes. What? No.

Katie Finn | she/her/hers

From: Mike Mercedes

To: AO

Subject: No Political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:33:26 AM

Please do not allow political emails to pass through Gmail spam filters.

Thank you.

Mike
From: Kimberley Smith

To: AO

Subject: No to bypassing spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 6:13:37 PM

Hello, I oppose a request from Google (or in the future any other email service provider, ISP,

or media conglomerate) to allow certain emails (namely political campaigns) to bypass spam

filters people may already have in place.

This is not the time for that nonsense. People do not need to be bombarded with messages in

their inbox unless they CHOOSE to receive them. I get it that most who use Gmail, Yahoo

Mail, etc., are using it "for free" (not really when our digital lives are the commodity being

sold) but then Google "asking FEC politely" means they really just want to sell one more

thing.

You want to make Americans even angrier with government?

Don't allow this. NOPE NOPE NOPE

Kimberley Smith

if you need additional personal details to prove I am a voting US citizen, let me know
From: Leslie Avery

To: AO

Subject: No to political spam in my gmail inbox

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 6:54:32 AM

Please do not allow more spam into my Gmail inbox. Political spam is just as bad as

commercial spam. Politicians are in it for the money and or power.
From: Ann Parker

To: AO

Subject: NO to unsolicited political emails!

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:00:23 AM

Dear FEC:

Please do NOT allow Google to open my inbox to every conceivable political email. These

entities deserve MORE scrutiny, not less.

I will leave Gmail if this happens. Do your job and protect the American people and our

political system; do NOT allow Google to spam ME!

Thank you -

From a VERY concerned citizen
From: Scott Turner

To: AO

Subject: Opposed to Google Proposal

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:59:52 AM

I am opposed to Google's proposal to allow political emails to bypass spam filters. People can

already get political emails by signing up for them and indicating they are not spam. We do

not need a deluge of unsolicited political emails in our inboxes.

- Scott Turner
From: C Michael Fuller

To: AO

Subject: pilot program for authorized candidate committees, political party committees, and leadership political action

committees that are registered with the Federal Election Commission during the 2022 election cycle

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 6:22:18 PM

The FEC must ensure that Google only sends Political Spam to gmail addresses that have

provided explicit consent to receive this information.

No form of 'opt out' will prevent Google or any organization with access to the internet from

harvesting, selling, aggregating, and annotating the individual and collective data elements

involved in the conceptualization, design, creation, testing, sending, delivery, and statistical

analysis which is at the core of Google's revenue stream -- the revenue streams of Google's Ad

Sense providers -- the revenue stream of Google's Ad Sense customers -- the revenue stream

of PACs, Unions, Lobbyists, and APT's both domestic and international.
From: Robert Parker

To: AO

Subject: Pleas do not allow Gmail to pass through political emails I did not signnup for. Or at least give us a choice to opt

out that works.

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:12:45 AM
From: christopher michel

To: AO

Subject: PLEASE KEEP POLITICAL SPAM FILTERS

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:29:55 AM

I understand Google has requested permission to stop filtering unwanted political messages. I

urge you not to approve this.

I have had an (unknown) person attempting to bother me for years by signing my email up for

political messages from a range of political parties. Right now it’s easy for me to avoid the

bulk of the annoyance with my spam filters.

Turning those off would make my email nearly impossible to use.

Thank you

Christopher Michel

Homewood, Alabama

-- 

Thumbed from a small screen, with help from predictive text.
From: Pamela Palme

To: AO

Subject: political ads

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:25:33 AM

Please DO NOT let Google place political ads in my in box without my permission.

I don't want them.

Pamela Palme
From: Alex Hautequest

To: AO

Subject: Political e-mail whitelisted: NOPE

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:27:37 PM

As much as this is interest of many, this type of electronic communication is no different from any other type of

communications. As such it should be treated with no special privileges from any provider - and they should abide

to users choice, not just dumped as unwanted junk on people’s email inbox.

Alex
From: Lyn McCormick

To: AO

Subject: Political email

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:39:37 AM

Please, please, please don’t let them avoid the spam filters! I get hundreds of calls, and texts a week as it is. Please

keep them out of my inbox!

Lyn McCormick

Sent from my iPad
From: Bradley Abrams

To: AO

Subject: Political emails on Google

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:14:15 AM

Hi,

I am opposed to allowing political emails to bypass Google’s spam filter. I think this is a truly

terrible idea, and can find no reasoning that would justify it. The undermining of the telephone

privacy act, the threat of large-scale disinformation campaigns, and many other reasons

militate against taking this step. Please do not allow it.

Best,

Brad Abrams
From: Ginger Ballard

To: AO

Subject: political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:11:04 AM

We absolutely do not need more political emails from any party or politician

Sent from Mail for Windows
From: Marc Roulstone

To: AO

Subject: political emails,

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:55:53 AM

Do not let the program that would essentially let political emails, which would no longer

be susceptible to spam filters following the proposed move and get a direct line to

primary inboxes become allowable.

Marc Roulstone
From: Robert McPherson

To: AO

Subject: political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:40:57 AM

Do not approve Google’s request to disable spam filters for political emails. If I want more political info I know

where to get it. I do not want an inbox full of crap.

Robert McPherson

Doylestown, PA
From: Ashley Kerst

To: AO

Subject: Political Spam

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:26:14 AM

Google’s request to remove all barriers to political spam is a horrible idea. Already one receives more political ads

and requests for money than one can bear. I ask you to do the sensible thing and refuse their request.

Thank you,

Ashley Kerst

Madison, Wi

Sent from my iPad
From: Sally Loveland

To: AO

Subject: Political spam

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 6:28:20 AM

Please do not allow Google to flood our emails with political ads, comments, information, editorials, or whatever

else you want to call it.

Sally Loveland

Sent from my iPhone
From: Parker Dooley

To: AO

Subject: Proposed exemption of political emails from Google spam filtering

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:06:36 AM

My name is Parker Dooley and I am a resident of Onancock, VA 23417.I am a Gmail user and US

citizen. I am writing to vehemently oppose Google's proposal to exempt political emails from their

spam prevention filters. Spam, whether political or non-political is already in the process of making

email and other electronic communication methods useless for ordinary communications between

individual citizens. The assumption by politicians that voting or contributing to one campaign allows

every other politician to inflict their message on an unwilling recipient imposes on every user an

incredible time tax via the requirement to unsubscribe from each and every unwanted campaign

communication. These messages are not political speech, generally, but commercial speech, in that

each and every one is a solicitation for funds, rather than an actual discussion of policy concerns,

and therefore should be given no privilege above ordinary advertising.

Sent from Mail for Windows
From: Dai Newman

To: AO

Subject: proposed Gmail filtering ruling

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:37:59 AM

Good morning,

I am concerned about the request on the part of Google to allow political emails to bypass all

spam filters. The volume of emails that campaigns send out is staggering and their rhetoric has

few strictures. Allowing all emails to bypass the spam filter will also be complicated by

fraudulent emails that appear to be campaign-based slipping through, allowing deceitful actors

to escape detection if Google is unwilling to filter them out.

I hope the FEC will keep consumers front and center, not politicians, and reject this proposal

from Google/Alphabet.

Thank you,

David Newman
From: Tom Vogel

To: AO

Subject: re: Google request for permission to bypass Spam block for political email

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:59:44 PM

I am an IT consultant serving clients in and around Seattle. My clients are universally small

business or home users. Almost without exception my home users in particular have asked me

for ways to reduce the amount of unsolicited political messaging that they receive. Many have

requested information from various elected officials and their campaigns but most have not.

Despite this, there are TREMENDOUS amounts of unsolicited email messages (spam)

clogging their mailboxes. I spend literally hours every month keeping my own mailbox free

from this unwelcome messaging. This is no exaggeration and does not include the time I must

spend dealing with other types of spam messages.

It is unconscionable that anyone, but especially Google, would think it's acceptable to exempt

spam of any type from the filters meant to keep it at bay. Political organizations have free

speech, to be sure. At the same time, ordinary Americans have the right to not have it thrust in

their face every time they check their email. Email has become a mandatory part of daily life

and, for most, it is a chore to deal with their daily mail and get the alerts from those whose

services they request, or indeed rely upon. It is essential for those who are disabled and lack

as many options as those more fortunate in the lottery of health. It is absolutely essential for

anyone with a child in school as well.

With a single child in school up until this year, I have received literally dozens of emails every

single week related to various school events, educational needs, and matters of literal life and

death for my child with severe food allergies. I barely kept up with this required email as it

was. There is no question that this would have been completely unmanageable should the vast

amount of political messaging suddenly be exempted from the spam filter which kept it at

bay. Enough is enough.

Google's request should be unequivocally denied.

Tom Vogel
From: Murray Foster

To: AO

Subject: Regarding Google"s request to prevent political emails from being stopped automatically by spam filters.

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 11:36:48 PM

I am strongly opposed to this Google proposal and would also like you to make the Do Not

Call list apply to political calls of all types also. I do not need to be pestered by politician's or

political organizations calls to make up my mind about who to donate to or vote for. This is

also why I no longer watch broadcast TV during election season. It is incredible that this idea

would even be considered. A huge percentage of politicians have shown that they do not have

their constituencies best interests in mind. A huge percentage of politicians have shown that

they do not know the meaning of truth. If this proposal is allowed it will open a pandora's box

of malfeasance and impose it on the huge population of Gmail users. Just say NO!

-- 

Regards,

Murray Foster
From: Rob Ericsson

To: AO

Subject: Regarding the Google request to send political emails without spam filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:40:16 AM

Hello,

I’m firmly against the Google proposal to be able to send political emails that bypass spam filters. There is already

too much disinformation and confusion around politics. This policy change would result in an unmanageable

amount of email ending up in inboxes most of which is of dubious factual quality and designed to maximize

emotional impact.

The FEC should not allow this change.

Best regards,

Rob Ericsson
From: bob morrell

To: AO

Subject: Removal of political spam filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:34:56 AM

I oppose any lessening of political spam filters by google. Email already stands on the edge of uselessness, this

would push it over the edge.

Please refuse the request.

Bob Morrrell
From: Barbara Stephenson

To: AO

Subject: spam and politics- hard no

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:44:11 PM

Please don't let gmail bypass spam for any reason. If it is unsolicited it is not requested and

should be spam or just straight junk. 

Thank you, 

B
From: Jon William Sweitzer-Lamme

To: AO

Subject: Strongly oppose allowing Google to bypass spam filters for political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:39:10 AM

As title. Allowing google to prioritize political emails increases the number people who

actually see the emails. This has monetary value to the people sending the emails: it would

basically mean that Google was providing a large political donation to every politician

sending emails to Gmail addresses.

Jon Sweitzer-Lamme
From: Leonard Hurff

To: AO

Subject: Advisory Opinion Request (Google LLC)

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:17:20 AM

To whom it may concern,

I’m writing to voice my opinion on Google LLC (“Google”) request to allow political email to be

excluded from spam detection and rules. Do not allow political emails to be excluded from spam

detection and regulations. Spam is spam regardless of context. Just because it is “political” does not

make it acceptable. In my opinion, it makes it even worse than regular spam. If I want to educate

myself on a political matter, I can do that on my own.

Respectfully

Leonard Hurff
From: Scott Link

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:34:12 AM

I do not support permitting political campaign emails bypassing spam filters.

I agree with Caleb Heath's email, dated 9 July:

"Campaigns should produce content that is of value and high quality sufficient to not be sent

to spam by filters, just like every other sender. If they can’t, they shouldn’t get special

treatment."

Thank you,

-- 

Scott Link
From: Ron Bovino

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:41:54 AM

To whom it may concern:

I urge the FEC to DISAPPROVE the pilot program That Google is seeking Which will allow political

committees to bypass spam filters and instead deliver political emails to the primary inboxes of Gmail

users like myself.

There are a slew of reasons that this is just not the best idea on the planet. Firstly, political candidates

running for office are habitually aggressive with campaign email blasts- even after unsubscribing from

campaign emails I still receive bulk junk from them and also other candidates within the party. Pure

nonsense and it needs to stop.

Secondly, I could imagine the field day state sponsored hacking groups would have with campaign

phishing emails getting past spam filters and into my inbox. Not sure who thunk this up at Google but

clearly they need more Vitamin D in their diet.

Thank You,

Ronald G. Bovino

Concerned Gmail User
From: Dave Rodenbaugh

To: AO

Subject: Comment on Gmail"s request to allow political emails into inboxes without spam checking

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:29:32 AM

To Whom It May Concern,

I am the owner of an email service provider and have extensive experience in inbox delivery,

spam email content, and concerns people have around unwanted emails they receive every

minute of the day.

In my expert opinion, Gmail and Google should not automatically allow political emails

directly into the inboxes of every single American.

Why? Simply put, it has huge potential to be abused and most absolutely will be.

Currently, political fundraising emails already occupy a significant portion of people's

inboxes. And many of these requests are from political action committees with little to no

oversight.

Their emails can make wild, sweeping claims that the average consumer will not be able

to corroborate or identify as false (if they are, which is quite likely).

The fundraising sites they link to are difficult to verify or track as legitimate, so the

potential for scam and fraud is huge.

Today, the fact that spam filters can hold this deluge back a bit is a massive advantage to the

average email reader. They already receive tons of these if they have subscribed to the

campaign updates of any candidate at all.

But to allow unfettered access to the inbox will be an unmitigated disaster.

I URGE YOU NOT TO ALLOW GOOGLE/GMAIL TO PROVIDE UNFILTERED ACCESS

FOR POLITICAL EMAILS TO THE INBOX.

Thank you for your consideration.

-Dave Rodenbaugh

Founder and CEO, Recapture.io
From: Ken Mencher

To: AO

Subject: Comment on Google’s plan to let political emails bypass spam filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:57:39 AM

As a Google Mail user, I do not want unsolicited emails to bypass automated filtering. If I

want to receive political messages, I’ll request them. Bad enough that political campaigns can

bypass the DoNotCall lists, now Google wants to let them pass their spam filters?

Maybe, if they were “opt in”, I could see that, but they’re not. They’re “opt out”. 

This leaves out the consideration of bad actors leveraging this avenue to bypass protections

and directly influence US campaigns, or even perform cyber attacks against US citizens!

I strongly disagree with this proposal and urge you to reject it as well.

-Ken Mencher
From: Priya Dugad

To: AO

Subject: Comment to Google"s Request for Opinion on Pilot Program

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:34:43 AM

I am strongly opposed to Google's request to pilot allowing political advertising mail to bypass

the spam filter.

Thanks,

Priya
From: Katie Lohrenz

To: AO

Subject: Deny Google"s pilot program

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:52:41 AM

I'm a politically-engaged American citizen. I donate regularly to candidates and causes I

believe in. I get a lot of political emails.

Campaign emails are already exempted from the CAN-SPAM regulations that govern other

commercial email. While most of the emails I receive do have unsubscribe links, I've found

that many campaigns are slow and negligent in processing unsubscribe requests. These

campaigns also regularly buy and sell email lists, which makes it effectively impossible to

stop unwanted political emails, as new candidates, PACs and other political organizations

continually acquire known donors' email addresses from other campaigns.

While a given political email may not technically or legally be a spam message, email spam

filtering is an essential tool in keeping unwanted political messages out of our inboxes. The

campaign season never ends in modern US politics, and many if not most campaigns send

messages daily. Once an email address is on one campaign's email list, it's a matter of time

before it's on many, many more email lists. Because campaigns are not covered by CANSPAM regulations, email users have few options for keeping an overwhelming quantity of

political emails out of their inboxes.

Please don't let Google make it easier for campaigns to inundate us with emails.

Email marketing and delivery rate optimization are skills any campaign can learn and practice.

If campaigns are struggling to get their messaging in front of their constituents' eyes, there is a

mature industry of experts and tools who can help them adopt best practices and achieve their

goals. They don't need to be exempted from spam filtering to accomplish this. While there is

true civic merit in making sure American voters are able to hear from the candidates who seek

to represent them in our government, candidates' voices can be heard clearly and effectively

within the same limits as ordinary commercial email messaging.

If anything, there should be more regulation around political emails and more filtering options

to reduce unwanted and low-quality emails from all parts of the political spectrum. (While

John Gruber may have found that Republican messages are "more spammy," the DCCC

emails in my spam folder set the bar so low, it's grotesquely impressive that Republican

messages manage to limbo under it.) And if Google wants to address the right's accusation of

algorithmic bias, they can do that without exempting campaigns of the spam algorithm

altogether.
From: Matthew Solow

To: AO

Subject: Do not open the spigot

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:30:03 AM

STOP GOOGLE INVADING MY LIFE WITH POLITICAL EMAILS. I WISH TO BE IN CHARGE OF MY

OWN MAIL BOX WITHOUT YOUR HELP.

Matty
From: Richard Clark

To: AO

Subject: Don’t spam me with political ads

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:58:36 AM

Rick Clark
From: Tom Moran

To: AO

Subject: Filter the Political Spam

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:11:35 AM

Hello,

I am writing to oppose Google’s request to allow political spam to come direct to primary

inboxes in Gmail. Email is hard enough for many and people should be free to contribute to

campaigns they decide to through better means (talking to friends, based on issues, etc) versus

a firehose of fundraising emails.

Please do not allow Google’s request to go through.

Respectfully,

Thomas Mora

-- 

Tom Moran
From: Lew Sibert

To: AO

Subject: Gmail - please don’t!

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:51:13 AM

Open it to anything that is or involves politics. Our society is horribly victimized and polarized

by misinformation, malaise and anger.

We don’t need to feed the beast.

Thank you.

-- 

Lew

-- 

Lew
From: Bob Jaben

To: AO

Subject: Gmail filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:54:44 AM

I am writing to oppose Advisory Opinion Request 2022-14 (Google LLC). Please don’t open a firehose of spam on

us.
From: Ridge Kennedy

To: AO

Subject: Gmail Priority for Political Messaging -- SAY NO

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:54:31 AM

Dear Commissions,

As a gmail user, I beg you, please DO NOT give Google permission to change the status of

incoming political messages.

Ridge

Ridge Kennedy [Exit 145]
From: Bj Yahoo

To: AO

Subject: Google and email. Against!

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:21:18 AM

I am AGAINST the proposed plan by google to open inboxes to political spam.
From: Lew Sacks

To: AO

Subject: Google and political Spam

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:47:56 AM

Sent from Mail for Windows

Please, please, please do not allow Google to emit MORE political spam. We are currently inundated

with quite enough.

Thank you for your good work.

Lew Sacks
From: Comcast

To: AO

Subject: Google email spam filtering: Deny request to allow political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:58:42 AM

I do not want political emails going directly into my inbox.

Please do not allow spam filtering changes.

Aside from the obvious fact that direct marketing is the worst way to learn about candidates, the amount of nonsense

and false information that works in that info-stream is terrible, dangerous, and offensive.

In addition to the previous, political emails are notoriously littered with phishing and similar malicious attacks.

If not for me, do it for the elderly. If I’m forced to look at that garbage in my moms inbox on her iPad, I’ll start a

telephone campaign. You’ll have elderly people calling all day long. They don’t sleep.

For the children! We’ve seen grown men and women get swept up in the lies of political candidates and attempt an

insurrection. Do we think children are sufficiently inoculated against the same?

Seriously, how about just yourselves? Who wants this other than Google waiting to monetize email all over again?

Citizens don’t want this.

Thank you for your time.

Apologies, in arrears, for my snark.
From: Daniel H. Brown

To: AO

Subject: Google End of Political Spam Filter

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:42:42 AM

Dear Reader,

I think this is a terrible idea and I vehemently oppose it. I do not want any additional streams of

political mailers arriving at my inbox. Please do not approve this program.

Stephen Brown

Sent from Mail for Windows

This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. 

www.avast.com
From: Patrick Rearden

To: AO

Subject: Google gmail political Ads

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:02:54 AM

Please do NOT allow Google to send political ads to our inboxes via Gmail.

Thank you,

Pat Rearden in NC
From: Arthur Scotti

To: AO

Subject: Google Political Emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:50:41 AM

I am STRONGLY opposed to Google’s request for a green light on a program that

would no longer subject political emails to spam filters! This is an insane request that

would waste a tremendous amount of my time and result in an increase of my

frustration with this country’s already terribly fraught political situation. Please deny

Google’s request.

Thank you,

Art Scotti
From: Daniels, Ryan

To: AO

Subject: google political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:33:16 AM

I would not like to receive political emails. Please note this as you track comments.

Ryan Daniels

Sent from Mail for Windows

From: Brenda Sistrom

To: AO

Subject: Google proposed removal of spam filters allowing political emails direct access to primary email inboxes

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:31:47 AM

I’m TOTALLY OPPOSED!! I do not want to receive ANY unsolicited political email from ANY party or

organization. Please do not give approval.

From Brenda Sistrom
From: Andrew Rich

To: AO

Subject: Google/Gmail political spam filter

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:38:26 AM

I'm writing to OPPOSE the idea of allowing political fundraising messages -- 99% of which are unsolicited,

unwanted, and in any other context would be universally labeled as spam or phishing -- a free pass into my alreadyovercrowded inbox. This is a bad idea. It's antithetical to the concept of consumer protection, and removes a key

element of control from the end user.

Thank you for your attention.

Andrew Rich
From: Layne Van Boxtel

To: AO

Subject: Google’s request for political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:19:21 AM

I am opposed to a Google’s request that political emails be allowed to by pass spam filters.

Sincerely,

Layne Van Boxtel

Sent from my iPad
From: F Gruhl

To: AO

Subject: Google"s move to open GMAIL to political messages

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:46:28 AM

I strongly OPPOSE this move by Google. I am already inundated by political messages from

other sources.

Virus-free. www.avg.com
From: Dan Mason

To: AO

Subject: Google"s opening of political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:43:14 AM

One of the more dumb ideas on the American public. Email will die because of this...
From: Lynn Abbey

To: AO

Subject: Google"s request to void political spam filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:00:13 AM

Do. Not. Grant. This. Request.

It is not merely that We The People will be subject to a relentless torrent of unwanted messages, but

that the messages will unleash even more disinformation upon us.

Sincerely,

Marilyn Abbey
From: Cheryl Dean

To: AO

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:50:13 AM

Sent from my iPhonesay no to letting captain messages to come to in box.
From: Chris Ewing

To: AO

Subject: No political spam

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:30:21 AM

Polarization in America is bad enough. Don’t allow google to make it worse with excessive political advertisements!

Chris
From: Michael A. Wong

To: AO

Subject: No special treatment for political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:49:53 AM

To whom it may concern:

I have a specific Gmail account for political contributions and EVEN WITH SPAM FILTERS TURNED ON, it is

flabbergasting how much unsolicited mail is generated by a political contribution. If the filtering rules are relaxed,

then that email box will be overrun. I will then ignore that email inbox and simply empty it out when it gets full.

Don’t let this happen.
From: Armando Pimentel

To: AO

Subject: No to Unfiltered Political Emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:55:31 AM

This a horrible idea. My inbox is already over-run with spam messages, my

handset with calls. Stop this relentless stream of unwanted solicitations...or, at

the least, provide consumers with enforced opt-out protections.
From: Rachel McCord

To: AO

Subject: oppose political bypass of spam filter

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:33:17 AM

Hello,

I am writing to express my strong opposition to Google's pilot of allowing unsolicited political

e-mails to bypass the spam filter. You have probably already heard all the primary reasons

people disagree with this, and I concur with these reasons:

1) Being bombarded with political messaging we are unable to avoid will only further inflame

political tensions that already exist, rather than encouraging meaningful personal

communication and compromise. 

2) It simply will make being a gmail user more annoying, having to wade through and delete

e-mails we don't want. And as a byproduct, it will make us less likely to actually pay attention

to important political issues.

3) It is a security risk-- if some groups can pass the spam filter, what if some of those groups

take advantage of this to start phishing scams

Thanks,

Rachel 
From: M Liles

To: AO

Subject: Political bypass of spam filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:35:00 AM

How ridiculous can things get? The politicians always win. Anyone proposing this idea of

political SPAM bypassing spam filters should be tied to a TV set with their eyes pried open

and forced to watch hundreds of hours of "my opponent is a scumbag" ads. This idea will only

add exponentially to the political division in the country. It's actually a dangerous move but I

wish I could also say it's also unusual. And the most ridiculous thing about it is that it will

change no minds at all and actually run people away from political involvement. Maybe that's

the underlying idea.

I'm actually afraid to think of what
From: Bobbie Hall

To: AO

Subject: Political email change comment

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:15:11 AM

Changing the spam filter system to allow for a direct stream of unsolicited garbage from political

campaigns would be a very inconsiderate move for your customers. I would consider dropping at

least my personal gmail account if that happens. If I want emails from a campaign, I’ll sign up for

them.

Thanks, Bobbie H.
From: Katie Swick

To: AO

Subject: Political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:18:40 AM

To whom it may concern,

I already get enough spam mail. I do not want to receive political emails. Please allow them to continue being

filtered.

Best,

Katie Swick

From: CBSatornino

To: AO

Subject: Political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:02:37 AM

Please do not permit this proposal to go forward. Our political system is already so broken. Please don’t perpetuate

the brokenness. Thank you.
From: Josh Wilson

To: AO

Subject: political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:45:06 AM

Greetings,

I understand that Google is requesting a suspension of spam filters for political emails. I

would like to register my strong disapproval of this potential change.

regards,

Josh Wilson
From: Barbara Vaught

To: AO

Subject: Political Spam

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:45:51 AM

I do not want to receive political emails and want to be able to filter them as spam. Please

reject Google's request to change this.
From:

To: AO

Subject: Political Spam

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:45:19 AM

Attachments: Screen Shot 2016-06-23 at 8.11.39 PM.png

I am absolutely and vehemently opposed to Google’s proposed program to stop filtering

political emails. As difficult and inconvenient as it would be I would certainly take my search

engine business elsewhere.

Nick Hamblen

NickHamblen

CreativeResource 

https://nickhamblencreative.com/ 

From: Mike FJ

To: AO

Subject: Public comment - Unrestricted political email

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:53:40 AM

I would like to add my voice to those OPPOSING unlimited political email on Gmail. Email is

a vital utility for many people’s personal and work lives. Managing your inbox and filtering

out commercial spam is hard enough but a torrent of political spam will make email nearly

unusable. Telephones have become more trouble than they’re worth due to all the spam/scam

calls. Please stop this from happening to email, too. Thanks.

Mike Ferron-Jones

Portland, OR
From: Ricki McGlashan

To: AO

Subject: Public comment on Google/political ads

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:01:51 AM

I understand Google has requested approval for a plan to ensure all political emails go into my

"primary" mailbox instead of into "social" or "promotions." This is a terrible idea! It would

be a huge step backwards in a consumer's ability to control spam and to control our own

inboxes. DO NOT allow this! I beg you!

Ricki McGlashan, San Mateo, CA
From: Jamie Yannayon

To: AO

Subject: Public comment: Opposing Google"s request

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:44:50 AM

I oppose Google's request to allow political emails to circumvent spam filters.

Spam emails are emails that I already chose to not sign up for and therefore do not want to see,

and/or that are trying to influence or exploit me for the sender's gain. Allowing all political

emails past the spam filter goes against the free choice I have already made to not engage with

or share my contact information with those senders. It fundamentally shifts the existing "opt

in" paradigm to one where even an "opt out" or "unsubscribe" button does not guarantee

stoppage of future contact.

Additionally, what is Google's proposed process to vet and confirm which emails are

"political" or not? This seems like a slippery slope at best, and a definition I do not have

control over for my personal communications.

If anything, I could potentially support Google allowing individual Gmail users to tune their

spam filter settings to either allow or disallow political or other identifiable categories of

message and sender types to bypass spam.

Thank you for your consideration of public comments.

Jamie Yannayon

Cary, NC 
From: Phil Reeves

To: AO

Subject: Rules re: Spam Filters on Political Emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:30:23 AM

Dear Sir or Madam—

I am writing to let you know that I am opposed to rule making that would allow political

emails to be sent to consumers that would avoid spam filters. Thank you for your

attention to this important matter.

Phil Reeves

Tallahassee, FL

From: Sally Hays

To: AO

Subject: Comment on Google request for Political messages pilot program

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:04:27 AM

Dear FEC,

 I am opposed to allowing Google to allow political messages to be sent directly to a gmail primary

box. As an independent in a swing state, I will be overrun with political ads and my email account

will become mired in messages asking for donations. Please do not allow google to change their

policy.

Thank you,

Sally Hays
From: Andrew Temer

To: AO

Subject: Comment on Googles proposed political email pilot program

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:07:52 AM

Hi there -

I receive a ton of political emails because I have donated to candidates and causes that I

support. However, this has resulted in now receiving upwards of 100 emails per day from

various political candidates and causes, many of whom I have never actually supported.

Currently these go to my Promotion or Spam folder and leaves my inbox productive and

uncluttered. If they were to start going directly to my email inbox that would reduce the

usability and efficiency of my gmail account. I would very much recommend that this change

not be made.

Thank you

Andrew Temer

From: Jean Greaves

To: AO

Subject: Google

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:09:16 AM

To whom it may concern,

I understand that Google has sent a request to the FEC asking for permission to allow

political spam to go directly to users' primary inboxes instead of being filtered as

spam. I am vehemently opposed to this move and urge you to deny Google's

request.

Thank you.
From: One of the Makelys

To: AO

Subject: Opposition to Google"s political email proposal

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:11:21 AM

I am writing to state my opposition to Google's proposal regarding political emails. The last

thing we consumers need is more junk email, especially in this highly partisan era.

Thank you.

Neal Makely
From:

To: AO

Subject: Political emails from Google/filtered

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:13:04 AM

NO! I have zero interest in being spammed with political emails. Do not allow Google to remove the filtering on

political emails.

Sincerely

Rachel Nichols

Albany, Oregon

Sent from my iPhone
From: Thomas Tilque

To: AO

Subject: Political e-mails to my G-mail account

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:15:52 AM

Please do not let any political e-mails reach my G-mail accounts. They

will be labeled SPAM. I also will not vote for any candidate that sends

them!

--

Tom Tilque

“Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are

putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”—Mark Twain

Be well. Wear a mask and get vaccinated, please.

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

 
From: James Lee

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:37:55 AM

The idea of allowing politicians to bypass spam filters is horrifying. If you don't want to be in my spam folder, don't

spam me. It's really that simple.

It boggles the mind that anyone, including the folks at Google, thinks that this is a good idea.

It's a terrible idea. Please deny the request.

Regards,

James Lee
From: sk

To: AO

Subject: Ao 2022-14 | Fec

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 8:37:40 PM

In 76 years I have never responded to any proposed .gov change before.

Today I must recommend NO to Ao2022-14. 

Allowing political email to bypass spam filters deserves unparalleled rebuke.

S. Kimberling
From: Gmail

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 GOOGLE LLC

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:17:11 AM

I implore the commission to reject the request. We citizens are already assailed with traditional mail and advertising

relating to political campaigns. Significant time is wasted daily dealing with unwanted email and phone calls.

Requiring us to wade through unfiltered additional email encroaches on the 8th amendment “nor cruel and unusual

punishments inflicted”
From: Dennis Leonard

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:29:18 AM

I request that you deny Google's request to allow campaign ads to go through to my inbox. I already get this random

crap from people who are not even in my state nor anyone I followed in the past, but at least it's under the sub tab of

promotion sometimes or outright blocked in my spam which is even better.

I want the spam blocker to keep doing it's job which is: Did I specifically sign up for this stuff? NO! Then move to >

BLOCKED

- Dennis Leonard
From: Kevin Miller

To: AO

Subject: Comment on Google"s Request for Opinion on Pilot Program

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:51:31 AM

Dear FEC,

Google has asked for the FEC's opinion on whether it can implement a pilot program that allows the email sent from political candidates and campaigns to bypass spam filters. These emails would instead be delivered directly to their user's inboxes.

I am writing as a former Google Apps administrator for a large university who dealt with a lot of issues around spam and filtering. Oftentimes senders within our organization would be thwarted by spam filters when trying to notify students or staff about important information. In all cases, when I had investigated why these emails were filtered, there was a technical or content-based remedy that helped get the right

messages to the right people.

There are existing best practices for sending unsolicited email, some of which are technical while others are editorial. Election campaigns sending millions of emails could choose to follow these best practices, but they are unwilling because it would materially change the tone and tenor of the messaging.

When perusing my own selection of political spam, there are many parallels between the campaigns and true spam. One was sent by a company named c-blastmail.com <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcblastmail.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cao%40fec.gov%7Cff375219060445e8d3c408da65b0b3b2%7Cee91fa706c9d45e0bb084a355de91010%7C0%7C1%7C637934106905732740%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Z8eChmMZTD6GYt7OOB9zlcGrKZoKEGxaZzgMFjUq4gM%3D&reserved=0>

, which routed email through a separate SMTP relay, but the reply-to email address ended with the domain cbfs-net.com <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcbfsnet.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cao%40fec.gov%7Cff375219060445e8d3c408da65b0b3b2%7Cee91fa706c9d45e0bb084a355de91010%7C0%7C1%7C637934106905732740%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=HmRXMaxVbVnqjjhHc3VV3zcEG2ynxdv7AltwqM5Rq7I%3D&reserved=0> . This

setup, without the appropriate changes to domains and email headers, would make it impossible to determine whether the sender is legitimate. There are very specific steps that the sender could have made to remedy this situation, but they apparently decided not to.

The means to avoid the SPAM folder are well-documented. Campaigns just need to do their due diligence when sending email. Thank you for your time,

Kevin Miller
From: Alex Rossbach

To: AO

Subject: Do not allow political emails to bypass Gmail spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 9:35:48 PM

Please do not allow political campaign emails to bypass Gmail spam filters. That opens the door for any sort of

tangentially related "political" campaign email to bypass spam and inundate users. I can't stress how badly I don't

want random political emails to be in my email inbox.

--

-Alex Rossbach
From: Pat Blackard

To: AO

Subject: Don"t allow Google to exempt politicians from spam suppression

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:09:32 AM

Please do not allow Google to make emails from authorized candidate committees, political party committees and

leadership political action committees registered with the FEC exempt from spam detection.

Patrick Blackard

round Rock, Texas
From: Noel Gorelick

To: AO

Subject: Don"t allow political email to bypass spam filtering

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:45:34 AM

I am writing to strongly object to the plan to allow political emails should to bypass spam filtering. I think this is a

very bad idea. Many political emails are already full of gross misstatements, exaggerations and lies. I'm very happy

that my email provider is able to filter these for me.
From: Peter Harrison

To: AO

Subject: Gmail hard pass for political emails - a bad idea

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:29:18 AM

I get a lot of emails urgently asking for money for political candidates and campaigns. I would classify 99% of these as spam.

These emails are a nuisance and a security risk.

Please do not allow Google to bypass spam filters for such emails.

Background:

Earlier this month, Google sent a request to the Federal Election Commission <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fec.gov%2Ffiles%2Flegal%2Faos%2F2022-

14%2F202214R_1.pdf&data=05%7C01%7Cao%40fec.gov%7C96ec628792ec4fa795fe08da659cceae%7Cee91fa706c9d45e0bb084a355de91010%7C0%7C1%7C637934021574999706%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Q1qs8A1LkqwVw8rPzNbV9qtCgWaFa4xkWOCY9vq%2BBuQ%3D&reserved=0>

seeking an advisory opinion on the potential launch of a pilot program that would allow political committees to bypass spam filters and instead deliver political emails to the primary inboxes of Gmail users.

Peter B Harrison, MD
From: Sean McCullough

To: AO

Subject: Gmail Politics

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 6:22:00 AM

We get enough political bullshit through social media, unsolicited phone calls, and our televisions. Please let us keep

one place a little clean from the waves of lies that everyone is spouting. Don’t let Google turn the firehose on our

inboxes. --

Sean McCullough
From: Bill Jorth

To: AO

Subject: Google Political Email Program

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:27:08 AM

Please reject this egregious spam project.

Thank you.

<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhihello.me%2Fp%2F68b360a6-e941-4f94-9421-

d0483d79bfb5%3Ff%3Dvcf&data=05%7C01%7Cao%40fec.gov%7C93607b198e43446c9bc308da65a4ed1e%7Cee91fa706c9d45e0bb084a355de91010%7C0%7C1%7C637934056279818302%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=kfnEz4%2FnZ6SWhn73trY4kMTG8TKms027UWQZV1BaCHg%3D&reserved=0>
From: John Drummond

To: AO

Subject: Google Political E-mailProposal

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:58:24 AM

Please go no approve Google’s proposal to allow political spam e-mail to go to everyone’s mailboxes. Spam is

overwhelming now. I am sick of political propaganda and do not wish to be even more overwhelmed by political

ads.

Sent from my iPhone
From: Fredy Gerber

To: AO

Subject: Google request for political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:46:45 AM

Hello,

I strongly oppose google’s request and urge you to deny it.

No unsolicited emails in my inbox!

Thank you

--

Regards, Fred Sent from my mobile
From: Betty Hale

To: AO

Subject: Google spam filters

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 6:26:01 PM

Please do not allow Google to allow political committees to bypass spam filters in gmail. If I want to know about a

politician I will do an online search. I don't want their propaganda shoved down my throat in an email.

Thank you.
From: Jordan Rich

To: AO

Subject: Google"s proposed pilot program

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 6:52:23 AM

Hello,

I am completely against the idea of unsolicited political emails being exempt from the spam filters. It is the

definition of spam and I don't want it regardless of the party, candidate, and whatever their views and policies are.

Jordan Rich
From: Ashlei Watson

To: AO

Subject: No Political Emails!

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:02:45 AM

Please do not remove the spam locker on these emails. I can't stand all the calls, mail, signage, etc. I am inundated

with each election cycle.

Thank you.
From: davewithabeard

To: AO

Subject: No, just no

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:54:30 AM

No to political emails going to primary folders. The spam calls are enough. Straight away to the spam folders with

these ads...

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device
From: Jonathan Dubman

To: AO

Subject: Opposing Google"s request to the FEC

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 10:52:35 PM

RE: Advisory Opinion Request (Google LLC), pursuant to 52 U.S.C. § 30108 of the Federal Election Campaign Act

of 1971

I oppose Google's request to exempt certain political emails from normal spam filtering. The set of political

candidates and campaigns who would be eligible for this program in the US in this era (2022) includes a large

number of individuals already known to be untrustworthy, and groups thereof, from whom I would consider any

online communication whatsoever to be dangerous and potentially traumatizing. If I see political emails from these

people or groups slipping through the filters, I will avoid Gmail, even at my own personal inconvenience.

Jonathan Dubman

Seattle, WA
From: Ben Kolstad

To: AO

Subject: Please DO NOT allow emails from political committees to bypass spam filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 7:46:00 AM

Google’s proposal is horrible. Please do not exempt emails from political committees from spam filters.I get enough

such junk that makes it past the spam filters. It’s horrible, and it wastes precious time.

Thank you.

Ben Kolstad

Boca Raton, FL
From: John Carter

To: AO

Subject: Please reject Google"s request that email from political committees and candidates" email be allowed to bypass spam filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:36:39 AM

FEC members:

I understand that you recently received a request from Google to allow email from political committees and/or candidates to bypass spam filters (https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/aos/2022-14/202214R_1.pdf <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fec.gov%2Ffiles%2Flegal%2Faos%2F2022-

14%2F202214R_1.pdf&data=05%7C01%7Cao%40fec.gov%7Ca905aa46e5a44c83948008da659ddebc%7Cee91fa706c9d45e0bb084a355de91010%7C0%7C1%7C637934025993216461%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=dPXWHwsN2GVt9OXw4hgBmEF4CsmNJOJ%2Fq6B7VwsE1ks%3D&reserved=0>

). I am writing on my personal behalf to strenuously request that you reject this request (or, put another way, issue an advisory opinion disallowing the proposed practice). Political actors already tend to send out far too much "spam" email (low quality, misleading, invasive, etc.) and one of the few ways for us citizens to avoid this flood of unwanted email is via spam filters. Political actors should have to follow the same

practices as any other sender of unsolicited email to avoid being marked as spam.

Thank you,

John
From: Luanna Grow

To: AO

Subject: Political emails ruling

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:54:43 AM

Please do not approve Google’s request to allow political emails to avoid being stopped by spam filters. It should be

my choice

Luanna Grow

portland, or
From: Robby Zinchak

To: AO

Subject: Public comment regarding gmail spam exemption for political campaigns

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:05:45 PM

Hello,

I am writing in with regards to a comment regarding political campaigns getting special exemptions for the gmail spam filter, with a somewhat rare perspective -- I myself run a medium-sized e-mail newsletter (50k users). My newsletter is opt-in by the receiver, verified addresses, which I primarily use to notify people when I've released a new video game. It is perhaps one of the best examples of a legitimate email list... and yet it has been awful trying to get my mail delivered to Google addresses.

Google is terrible at spam handling, and yet they are a near monopoly with about 60% of my list contacts. There are actually a number of dark patterns that google uses -- for instance, a user marking a message as spam or not spam doesn't actually remember that. It's used to train their AI at large scale, but this button should absolutely remember the sender for the lifetime of the inbox. Instead, the process to add

a 'safe sender' is also needlessly convoluted, a pattern they've set up that ensures virtually no one will correctly add safe senders (link with video on the steps needed: https://robbyzinchak.com/how-to-prevent-our-newsletter-from-going-to-spam/ <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Frobbyzinchak.com%2Fhow-to-prevent-our-newsletter-from-going-tospam%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cao%40fec.gov%7C7e7cbda08a124c44e2a908da652434f1%7Cee91fa706c9d45e0bb084a355de91010%7C0%7C1%7C637933503445573566%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cTe4TbYYGNohuYsK%2BLWihRS0lpJub4N3oczaIXvXioQ%3D&reserved=0>

).

As someone who runs a mail server, I actually get constant spam from google servers. They don't have a standardized abuse address to report spammers on gmail to, and in fact, even official mail from youtube has not complied with their own sending guidelines. As always with google, one rule for us, one rule for everyone else. And trying to contact Google to sort out errors with their spam system as either a

sender or receiver is an effort in futility.

Let me be clear, I am a fan of some of the policies google requires, namely: opt-in, direct subs from users (no list purchasing), and easy unsubscribe. After all, I only want to send messages to people who want them. But what Google does in practice is disadvantage legitimate newsletters in the inbox. I am absolutely convinced they do this to nerf the effectiveness of e-mail and raise the cost of e-mail beyond

the cost of the forms of advertising they sell -- thus incentivizing their own advertising solutions. It is disgusting, it is an antitrust issue, and no one talks about it.

Now, should campaign mails get an exception? Absolutely not. Because:

1) Political campaigns are widely considered to have some of the worst sending policies in the mail industry. Political mail should have to follow the same proper sending rules everyone else does (proper opt-in & easy opt-out. NO list buying.)

2) Google is only offering this since they know politicians have power. If you're frustrated with the status quo of e-mail... GOOD. Legislate it. But fix it for everyone, even the little guys like us who have no political power.

Basically, if a user has consented to receive e-mail from a sender, it should in-fact be easy & straightforward for them to receive it. Google instead has what seems to be a defective-by-design spam handling solution that disadvantages legitimate senders.

Thanks for reading, and if there is ever a congressional antitrust hearing regarding the shenanigans that Google pulls, I would be HAPPY to testify. This is a problem that needs to be fixed.

Best regards,

Robby Zinchak

CEO Archive Entertainment LLC
From: Andrew Miller

To: AO

Subject: RE: AO 2022-14

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:51:25 AM

Email is for personal use and I personally do not sign up for email

blasts from political parties to inundate me with politically

motivated messages.

The only reason this is coming up as an issue is because it costs next

to nothing to send an email whereas to actually mail me via USPS, it

entails costs for printing, mailing, bulk sender status and address

lists.

Do not, I repeat, do NOT try to force my email provider (Google,

Microsoft, Apple, et al) to disable the protections on my inbox to

force me to see the sender and subject line of an email I'm going to

delete anyway.

If I want an email of a political nature, I know how to make it so I

receive such communications and I don't need the FEC trying to make

that decision for me.

Regards,

Andrew Miller
From: Matthew Briggs

To: AO

Subject: Reject Google"s political emails request

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 8:56:20 AM

To whom it may concern,

Please deny the request from Google and Gmail and make it more difficult to filter out political ads from my inbox.

These campaigns are impossible to get away from. When I unsubscribe from one candidate's spam, they sell my

information to two others. I've lived in central Texas for 12 years, but I somehow get requests for donations from

congressional races in Ohio, state senate races in Florida, and from a district attorney candidate in Oregon.

After donating to one family friend's campaign close to 6 years ago, I've entered a spiraling vortex of folks trying to

piss me off and take my money every single day. I have to have options to protect myself from this onslaught.

Please do not make it more difficult to do so.

Matthew Briggs
From: Thomas Larsen

To: AO

Subject: Advisory Opinion Request 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:32:15 PM

Please firmly and unequivocally reject Google's to permit campaign/political emails to bypass

spam filters.

This is a terrible idea.

I do NOT want emails in my inbox I did not sign up for. I already get plenty on junk from

campaigns who share my email without my express permission (i.e. they are unsolicited) -

something the FCC should urgently outlaw as well. Politicians and campaigns are some of the

worst spammers out there already, and certainly do NOT deserve special treatment by getting

exemption from the spam folder.

Thank you.

Thomas L.
From: Jessica Brown

To: AO

Subject: AO 22-14

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:35:40 PM

Our household (different political party affiliations) does NOT support the proposed changes

to rules regarding filtering email for spam. We are already subjected to the firehose of junk,

marketing and advertising (political campaigns and orherwise) that said filters miss—we do

not need additional freedom of information “protections”.

Sincerely,

Jessica Brown

Pittsburgh, PA
From: Max B

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC) - NO TO POLITICAL EMAILS BYPASSING SPAM FILTERS

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:49:13 AM

Please do not let Google send political emails directly to my inbox. The vast majority of them

are spam. Spam are unsolicited emails. These are emails I don't want, that I never wanted, yet

continue to get. At least now I don't see them if they're spam filtered. It would be a nightmare

if they bypassed the spam filter and went into my inbox. This would get abused on day 1. Any

company could register as a political organization and send literally anything to your inbox.

Please stop google from doing this.
From: Robert Michael Lawless

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14 (Google LLC)

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:15:32 PM

Request you deny Google's request to do a pilot program where campaign ads go to peoples'

inboxes and not through their spam filters.

Sincerely, 

Robert Lawless
From: Ann G

To: AO

Subject: AO 2022-14

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:27:08 PM

I oppose letting Google ease up on spam filters for political campaign emails.

Ann Gibbons Scherlis

Pittsburgh, PA
From: Jeff Garofalo

To: AO

Subject: Comment on political emails bypassing spam filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:35:03 AM

I'm a busy healthcare professional. My colleagues and I already receive more than enough

email. Please do not allow political emails to bypass spam filters under any circumstances.

Jeff Garofalo PA-C

==================================================
From: Carrie Short

To: AO

Subject: Comment to Google"s Request for Opinion on Pilot Program

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:30:00 AM

Dear FEC,

Google is asking for the FEC's opinion on whether Google can institute a

pilot program which allows the email sent to Gmail users from political

candidates and campaigns to bypass Google's spam filters, and instead be

delivered directly to their users' inboxes.

I would like you to know that I do not support this pilot program and think

you should deny the request.

Thank you,

Carrie Short
From: John Pringle

To: AO

Subject: Comment to Google"s Request for Pilot Program

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:02:37 PM

Dear FEC,

Google has asked you whether it can bypass GMail's spam filters to let email from

political campaigns go directly to my inbox.

Dear god, please say NO in the loudest and most impactful manner you can. I will

not attempt to address technical, legal or political realities. Just my own well being

and, I think, the well being of the many of my fellow citizens.

I feel as though I'm under attack by those who want to influence me - buy this car,

use this deodorant, whiten your teeth this way . . .

Now we are in the election season. A season that is characterized by promotions

using twisted facts and those which are fact free. The messages are blaring from

my TV, filling my mailbox, monopolizing my webpages and urging me from street

corners to vote for this candidate or that one.

Yep, I agree freedom of speech is wonderful. Just the same, I'm at the point where

I've been bruised by all this wonderful.

I use email for economic and personal reasons. It's an important means of

communication for me. GMail has been a safe haven from me in the spam infested

waters of email. Their spam filters take out an immense amount of email sent to me

by those whose sole connection to me is the fact that they know my email. I have

no connection to them nor have I ever given them permission or encouragement to

contact me.

I am grateful for GMail's protection from the hounding I would otherwise receive.

Now my trusted tool is asking, for obvious reasons, to be taken out of the business

of filtering political spam. If Google asked me I'd tell them the same thing I'm

asking you, please don't let the democrats, republicans, independents and crazies

near my inbox.

I'm under attack and at some point there's going to be the straw that breaks the

camel's back. You can keep the camel healthy for a bit longer.

Tell Google to keep filtering that political spam.

From: Lachlan Brown

To: AO

Subject: do not grant exemption to political emails bypassing Gmail spam filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:36:28 PM

thank you!

Lachlan Brown


From: Harold Delhommer

To: AO

Subject: Google Proposal on Political Spam

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:24:35 AM

What is Google thinking? What an awful idea!! We already get too much spam. Please, please, reject the proposal

and keep most political spam out of our email boxes. I have a hard time believing this idea has any support at all

except from Google.

Harold Delhommer

Sent from my iPhone
From: Shawn Gordon

To: AO

Subject: Google proposal to allow political emails to pass spam filter

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:53:58 AM

I strongly oppose Google’s proposal to allow political emails to bypass the spam filter.

Please no

Sent from my iPhone
From: Kurt Ribak

To: AO

Subject: Google Request For Opinion on gmail Pilot Propgram - OPPOSED

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:23:51 PM

Hello -

I have learned Google wants to run a pilot program where email from

political groups would bypass spam filters. I am opposed to this idea

There will be arguments from some political groups that this protects

free speech. These emails are typically sent without an opt-in from

the recipient. They are unsolicited and fit the classic definition of

spam emails. Furthermore, such e-mails are not fact-checked and are a

tool of misinformation and disinformation.

Free speech is protected, but there is nothing that guarantees access to

my inbox against my will.

The torrent of political spam also blunt email's effectiveness - I know

that as an email user I miss important emails in flood of unwanted

political solicitations I receive. I often urge people to instead

contact me by text message (SMS) - but the same trend is happening there.

Regards,

Kurt Ribak

Berkeley, CA
From: Rachel Diaz

To: AO

Subject: Google’s request

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:26:58 AM

I am writing to plead with you to NOT ALLOW Google to release spam blockers when it

comes to political emails. Please make the company continue to block political emails and

keep them from primary in boxes.

I already delete hundreds of emails per day (I currently have 3000+ in my trash awaiting

deletion ). 

Ironically I own Google stock but am against this action.

Thank you,

Rachel Diaz

-- 

‘‘Then the lie passed into history and became truth.” — 1984 by George Orwell
From: Debra Fleenor

To: AO

Subject: Google"s request for opinion on pilot program

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:35:46 PM

Please, for the sake of us that get more than enough spam already, do NOT approve Google's

proposal to allow political candidates/campaigns to bypass spam filters.

The ONLY way they could make this idea acceptable is to give users an "opt in" choice, i.e.

users would need to actively decide they want to receive these emails. An "opt out" would be

less acceptable but better than nothing.

Thank you.
From: Andrew Smith

To: AO

Subject: Hard Pass On Politicians Spamming My Inbox

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:28:39 PM

FEC,

Don't let politicians spam my inbox - it's unneeded, unfair, and simply stupid policy. Anybody

could claim to be a "politician" - including scammers - just to side step the spam filters. 

Consider this: If Google has to ask for approval from the US government (which is already the

lowest possible bar), chances are Google shouldn't be doing it in the first place. Question

motives, FEC. This is a money money for Google and consumers/voters will suffer the

frustration. 

Thanks for your time. 
From: Karen Krowne

To: AO

Subject: NO MORE POLITICAL EMAILS

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:50:43 AM

I really can’t imagine! For the mental health of Americans and people ALL OVER THE WORLD -

PLEASE NO UNSOLICITED EMAILS OR POLITICAL ADS. They get us enough already.

PLEASE PLEASE PLRASE NOOOOOOO!

Thank you,

Kkrowne

>

I’m no longer accepting the things I cannot change....I’m changing the things I can no longer accept.

Angela Davis
From: M Bourgon

To: AO

Subject: No political spam in my inbox

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:31:20 PM

Please do not allow political emails in my inbox. It is super hard as it is to keep the increasingly partisan, shrill, and

sometimes downright deceitful emails out - and that’s before we look at secondary consequences, where scams and

the like fly under the radar.

I have a “public” email and “close friends” only email, and I need less crap winding up in either of them.

Thank you. Michael

---

Sent from my ekranoplan
From: Drew Atkins

To: AO

Subject: Oppose AO 2022-14

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:27:32 PM

This is a comment on AO 2022-14.

I strongly urge you to you deny Google's request for a pilot program that allows political

campaigns to send emails directly to primary inboxes, and to bypass spam filters.
From: Bill Knaggs

To: AO

Subject: Political email

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:44:47 AM

Please do not allow political messages by pass my spam filter.

Sent from my iPhone
From: Ricardo Springs

To: AO

Subject: Political Email Filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:07:23 PM

I OPPOSE the removal or relaxation of filters currently used by Google, or any other social

media platform.

Ricardo Springs
From: Doug Hurley

To: AO

Subject: Political emails are SPAM

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:28:32 AM

TO: FEC

Please do NOT allow Google to stop classifying/filtering political email as SPAM. We

all get too much junk email now - please don't allow the political BS to get through.

-- 

D Hurley

Chapel Hill, NC

(
From: Patricia Lindgren

To: AO

Subject: Political emails

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:37:02 PM

Please do NOT allow political emails to evade my spam filters!!

Sent from my iPad

Pat Lindgren

From: Yonah Walter

To: AO

Subject: Political Spam

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:28:33 PM

I am writing to express my extreme disapproval of Google’s suggested pilot plan to allow emails from

political action committees to bypass spam filters. I speak from over 20 years’ experience in

technology and technological communication - as a software engineer, developer, and analyst: this

plan is a terrible idea, and does not serve the public.

Already, PACs and other political groups bombard the public constantly with phone calls, TV ads, and

targeted ads on social media and in our web browsers. Allowing these groups access to our email

inboxes – already a major source of hacking, phishing, and other identity theft – only exposes us to

more avenues for attack. One need only research the history of spam calling to see how exceptions

made for political groups leave loopholes large enough to fit the entire voting public into.

If PACs and other groups are worried about reaching the public using only the “limited” means

currently available, one wonders how sending more spam emails to the public will break through the

cacophony of ads. It is similarly not hard to see that the oversaturation of political ads in those other

media, particularly during election season (which extends to year or more before Election Day), have

created the very imbalance in signal-to-noise that this plan claims to address.

Spam filters exist to give users some means of controlling the content received in their inboxes.

Taking away that control renders the entire endeavor pointless; so many of us already receive so

much political spam – emails which may include links to unknown websites which secretly bill users

for recurring donations (e.g. https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2021/08/06/amidinvestigations-trump-pac-still-using-prechecked-donation-boxes/?sh=5807f613a928) or even

secretly harvest user data.

Keep users in control of their content.

Thank you,

Yonah Walter

NJ resident
From: Damon Butler

To: AO

Subject: RE: Allowing Google to let political emails bypass spam filters

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:59:07 AM

Regarding the request Google made here:

https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/aos/2022-14/202214R_1.pdf

ABSOLUTELY NOT. Under no circumstances can you allow this to happen.

Unfettered "political speech" is what has led to propagation of the Big Lie, the

January 6 insurrection, and the rise of right-wing politically-motivated violence.

If anything, political emails must be given HIGHER scrutiny than other kinds of

messaging.

Respectfully,

~Damon Butler
From: Bo Prosser

To: AO

Subject: Totally AGAINST political gmail!

Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:31:51 AM

Please do not open the flood gates of political spamming!

Personally pecked out on iPhone!

Bo Prosser