Removal of RFC6652 Reporting Address (ra) modifier

[freddieleeman]

RFC6652, introduced as an update to RFC4408 in 2012, which was replaced by RFC7208 in 2014, has gained little to no traction in the email ecosystem. I’ve yet to encounter any mail transfer agents (MTAs) that implement its modifiers or generate corresponding reports. In contrast, DMARC’s unified approach consolidates DKIM and SPF results into a single XML-based report, which has proven far more practical and widely adopted.

After scanning the SPF records of the world’s top 1 million domains, I found that only 15 contained the RFC6652 ra modifier—just 0.0015%. Additionally, the rp and rr modifiers from the same RFC were absent from any SPF records. While technically permissible within an SPF policy, encountering reports due to these modifiers seems unlikely.

Based on this data, I suspect the only records using the ra=postmaster modifier are directly influenced by this GitHub repository. Unless compelling evidence emerges showing that such reports are both generated and helpful beyond what DMARC aggregate reports already provide, I recommend reconsidering the inclusion of these modifiers in proposed SPF policies.