Gmail - Delegated mailboxes show original email address of user

[timbo343]

It has come to my attention that when our admin users (or anyone with access to a delegated mailbox) send emails from a delegated account, the user's email address is showing on the delivered mai. For example, if joe bloggs has delegated access to admin @ schooldomain.com and sends an email to user @ externalemail.com the message will show:

 

On Office365: joebloggs @ schooldomain.com on behalf of School

 

 

On Hotmail / Live / Outlook (personal): Doesn't show who it was "sent by" but shows the Display name of the admin @ schooldomain.com

 

 

On Gmail: Shows the Display name and admin @ schooldomain.com only.

 

 

 

Does anyone know how to disable this as it's starting to grow concerns to our staff. The only other way i can think this can be stopped is for staff to have the account details of the delegated accounts however Google do not recommend this way of shared mailboxes.

[jthompson]

It all comes down to the "Sender:" header. Different clients will present the information from the "Sender:" header differently, just as you've described.

 

I don't know if there's a way for you to strip the Sender header out of outgoing emails, but that would solve your problem. A cursory look at available routing options would suggest that this isn't possible with Gmail, but if you had your own SMTP server you could perhaps do it there somehow, and have Gmail route any outgoing messages from your admin@ account through that SMTP server.

[timbo343]

Thanks, but i'd to keep things simple, surely that is what Gmail is supposed to do right? It looks unprofessional when sending emails to users both internal and external to the domain.

 

The ability to remove the header "X-Google-Sender-Delegation:" would be ideal however it cannot be configured.

[jthompson]

I suspect the only simple way is to have staff access the mailbox directly with shared credentials.

However, if you're happy to set them up with a desktop mail client instead, you could create separate app passwords for each client so that none of them know the main password.

[timbo343]

Good thought with the mail client however Outlook wouldn't work correctly as the GSuite Microsoft Outlook addin does things "differently" so account delegation has to enabled to view shared mailboxes. Adding additional mailboxes to Outlook Client doesn't seem to work as well as the MS way.

[RLR]

This is something we've just learnt to live with. We didn't like it at first but we'd rather have this then give people shared credentials.

[fiza]

We don't mind this. When several users are replying to emails in the shared mailbox then it comes in handy knowing who actually responded if there were any queries.

[fiza]

Having said that; have you seen this update ?

 

https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2020/01/sender-attribution-controls-gmail.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GoogleAppsUpdates+%28G+Suite+Updates+Blog%29

 

New controls for displaying sender attribution for shared mailboxes

 

 

What’s changing

 

We’re adding new controls for how the “Sender Attribution for Shared Mailboxes” is displayed. Currently, sender attribution is always enabled — this will remain the default setting unless disabled by the admin or the end user.

 

For end users, there’s a new setting in Gmail where you can specify what information is included in the email header of messages sent by delegates.

 

For admins, there’s a new setting in the admin console that allows you to hide all attribution for shared mailboxes in your domain or organizational unit (OU). This will override and disable the user setting in Gmail.

 

Who’s impacted

 

Admins and end users

 

 

 

 

Why you’d use it

 

Organizations use shared mailboxes in Gmail in multiple ways. For example, if an executive admin is responding on behalf of a CEO, from the CEO’s mailbox, sender attribution makes it clear who specifically drafted and sent the email.

 

Or, if you use an [email protected] mailbox to communicate with customers, customers will view all responses as equally valid, without knowing whether they were sent by [email protected], or [email protected].

 

With these new settings, you can now control and customize how attribution is handled for your domain, by OU, or on an individual user level.

 

Getting started

 

Admins: Sender attribution is on by default and can be disabled at the OU or domain level. The new setting can be found in the Admin console under Apps > G Suite > Gmail > User settings > Mail Delegation. Note that the default setting will be “Allow users to customize this setting” and “Show the account owner and delegate who sent the email.”

 

Settings for Mail Delegation in the Admin console

End users: Sender attribution is ON by default. You can view and set sender attribution parameters by going to Settings > Account > Grant access to your account in Gmail. If your admin has hidden sender attribution for your domain or OU, no action can be taken.

 

End user settings for sender attribution in Gmail

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2020 by fiza

[jthompson]

Having said that; have you seen this update ?

 

That'll be the one, then!

[timbo343]

@fiza thank you for this, just a matter of time

@gaz003 - FYI to you as you raised it with me.

 

Looks like i have the feature already. This is getting changed!

Edited February 3, 2020 by timbo343

[localzuk]

Well, this is fun. When this post came up I thought "huh, why would you want to turn that off?" and today? I turned it off on our domain, because I have a reason to! Glad this thread got posted!!