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Comment by jrochkind1 | Hacker News Reader

Isn't it up to the email provider whether `+` and `.` are ignored in email addresses, won't removing them to "normalize" end up sometimes mapping different email addresses to the same identifier?

I guess maybe that edge case is not nearly as bad for the advertisers as failing to link the same person, so it's tolerable?

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Afaik the period thing is a Gmail thing while the plus thing is in the RFC.

However it appears the IAB UID2 README says to only normalize pluses/periods for gmail.com addresses: https://github.com/IABTechLab/uid2docs/blob/main/api/README....

There is an RFC but it just mentions + as an example of a possible sub-address separator when discussing sub-addresses in Sieve filters. Whether or not + acts as a sub-address separator is server-dependent.

Oh good find, of course they can make a special rule for gmail, which is such a large portion of email addresses it's worth it.

It’s even up to the email provider to make the local part completely or partially case-sensitive if they wish, but tell that to most government websites in the world. Probably a lost case at this point.

Periods are more of a Gmail-specific thing, but as you mention merging two people once in a blue moon is not a terrible price to pay for an analytics system, it’s not like it’s going to send mail to these addresses.

On my own host, a '_' was easily configured. Maybe these companies will normalize everything, but it works for me.

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