What are the ethical concerns around certification programs?
Ethical concerns include: pay-to-play dynamics where legitimate senders must pay for treatment others earn freely, potential conflicts of interest if certification bodies profit from both fees and consulting, and whether programs create two-tier email ecosystems.
Criticism also includes: programs favoring large senders who can afford fees, unclear benefit validation (does certification actually improve delivery?), and potential for lowering standards to retain paying members.
Counterarguments: programs provide structure for practice improvement, external validation has value, and MBPs genuinely benefit from trusted sender identification. Evaluate programs critically: do benefits justify costs? Are standards meaningful? Does certification improve your specific situation?
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