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Guidelines

Microsoft is dedicated to help provide the most trusted and protected consumer experience on the web. Therefore, Microsoft has developed various policies, procedures, and adopted several industry best practices to help protect our consumers from abuse. The information below outlines these guidelines:

1. General Microsoft policies

Adherence to the following terms of usage, policies, and guidelines is required
• Microsoft’s terms of use
• Microsoft’s anti-spam policy

2. Technical Guidelines

E-mail sent to the Windows Live Services should comply with the documents listed below (some links are only available in English)
1. Anti-spam Recommendations for SMTP MTAs (BCP 30), The Internet Society
2. SMTP Service Extension for Command Pipelining (STD 60), The Internet Society
3. Remove Me Responses and Responsibilities: E-mail Marketers Must Honor Unsubscribe Claims, Federal Trade Commission
4. Basic E-Mailing List Management Guidelines for Preventing Abuse, E-mail Abuse Prevention System

Make sure your content complies with the following guidelines:

1. Sender is expected to comply with all technical standards for the transmission of Internet e-mail, as published by The Internet Society's Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), including RFC 2821, RFC 2822, and others.
2. After given a numeric SMTP error response code between 500 and 599 (also known as a permanent non-delivery response), the sender must not attempt to retransmit that message to that recipient.
3. After multiple non-delivery responses (see #2), the sender must cease further attempts to send e-mail to that recipient.
4. Sender must not open more than 500 simultaneous connections to MSN Services inbound e-mail servers without making prior arrangements.
5. Messages must not be transmitted through insecure e-mail relay or proxy servers.
6. The mechanism for unsubscribing, either from individual lists or all lists hosted by the sender, must be clearly documented and easy for recipients to find and use.
7. Connections from dynamic IP space may not be accepted.
8. E-mail servers must have valid reverse DNS records.

3. Adherence to CAN-SPAM Act

Senders should be familiar with the CAN-SPAM Act and ensure that their e-mail adheres to the requirements: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm

4. Authenticate your outbound e-mail: Publish Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records

Windows Live Hotmail currently uses Sender ID to provide additional input to the SmartScreen^TM junk e-mail filter process which helps determine if the e-mail or sender is legitimate. The Sender ID Framework is an authentication technology and the key piece of the framework is checking SPF records. Unauthenticated e-mail sent to Windows Live Hotmail users is not necessarily deleted or junked, however this can have an impact on how we rate the e-mail and its subsequent delivery into the inbox. In addition, depending on the users’ settings and why the e-mail was not authenticated, the e-mail may be flagged as an “unknown sender” in the user interface. Therefore, it is highly recommended that senders publish their SPF records. This will not only impact e-mail sent to Windows Live Hotmail users and help reduce false positives but help in the delivery of your e-mail into 100s of millions of e-mailboxes worldwide. The good news is that publishing your SPF records is very simple and is free to do. You can learn more about Sender ID by visiting www.microsoft.com/senderid. In addition to helping e-mailers create SPF records and send SIDF compliant e-mail, we have created a simple 4-step wizard that walks you through publishing your SPF records: http://www.microsoft.com/senderid/wizard

We encourage you to e-mail Microsoft upon posting your SPF record to the DNS. This will help ensure your record is automatically included in our SIDF cache. Send an e-mail with your domain name in the body of the message (for example, mydomain.com) to senderid@microsoft.com. If you have multiple domain names, please list each domain on a separate line in the body of the message.

5. Follow common e-mailing best practices

Microsoft is active within several industry bodies aimed at improving the internet/e-mail ecosystem. These organizations have published best practice documents that we support and recommend that senders adhere to. This improves your deliverability amongst several e-mail service providers around the world.

For more information visit http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/industry/default.mspx

In addition to these guidelines, we have developed some programs and tools to enable senders and ISPs to better understand how Windows Live Hotmail users are interpreting the e-mail they are receiving from senders and ISP networks. Learn more about the sender and ISP programs here.

These standards and guidelines are provided as information only. Abiding by these standards and guidelines will not guarantee the delivery of your e-mail. Microsoft makes no representation, warranty or commitment that any e-mail message which you send to users of the Windows Live Hotmail services will be delivered.