Changing, Updating, and Customizing Your Email Filtering

Overview

Bulk Email vs. Spam

Bulk mail is a unique category of email that some people consider to be spam and others do not. Many organizations use bulk mail services to send advertisements or deliver newsletters. You may receive some bulk mail because you signed up to receive a specific newsletter or joined a particular mailing list. Other bulk mail may arrive in your mailbox unsolicited. Some groups at Pitt also use bulk mail services to distribute information to a list of University contacts. Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, and JangoMail are all bulk mail services that enable individuals to deliver the same email to thousands of people.

Bulk Email Filtering: One Size Does Not Fit All

We regularly review the University-wide settings for bulk mail filtering to optimize filtering for the University community. We realize that everyone views bulk mail differently. Some people might want to receive newsletters from other organizations, whereas other people might want those same newsletters quarantined. To address these different preferences, you can choose how aggressively you want the University’s spam filtering service to filter your email.

Detail

How to Adjust Email Filtering

To set your mail filtering preferences:

1. Log in to Accounts Administration via My Pitt (my.pitt.edu) with your University username and password.
2. Click Email & Messaging and then Set Email Preferences in the header menu. 
3. Click the Filtering tab. 
4. Choose your desired level of filtering, then click Save Email Filtering.

You can choose how aggressively you would like the University’s spam filtering service to filter bulk mail below. If you choose a moderate or aggressive setting, you will likely want to regularly check your Spam and Virus Email Filter or your weekly spam summary email message to make sure no legitimate emails have been quarantined.

Related Information

Additional Customizations: Approving and Blocking Senders

Approving and blocking specific senders is another way that you can customize the filtering of your University email messages. You can approve a specific sender if you want to make sure messages from them always arrive in your Inbox. You can also block a specific sender if you do not want to receive messages from them any longer. Faculty and staff can approve or block entire domains (for example, all messages that come from @company.com). Students have the ability to block entire domains as well. For details see the Enterprise Spam and Virus Filter with Exchange Online Protection page.