Is Email Verification mandatory for internet acccess?

The short answer is no. Users will be able to get WiFi access after completing the login process even without verifying their email address.

After logging in, each user who chose email as their login method will receive an email asking them to verify their address to get full internet access. However, clicking the verification link is not mandatory for completing the login process. When a user receives this email, they already have access to the internet.

Tip

Users logging in with Social Media do not receive this email, as the email address is already verified by the Social Media provider.

This is because of technical limitations on most WiFi hardware that prevents limiting WiFi access for users who have not verified their email address. These addresses will be labeled as Unverified User Data. As soon as a user clicks the verification link, the system will automatically move them to the User Data tab. This article provides an in-depth comparison of verified and unverified user data.

What happens to unverified user data?

Unverified user data in the Dashboard is stored separately from verified user data. Under User Data on the left side, you will see two drop down options for verified and unverified emails.

We keep two databases as unverified data is usually of lower quality than verified data, and using it for marketing purposes may lead to lower deliverability rates. However, using this data can be enabled. More information on that can be found in this article.

Why is email verification important?

We use a third-party program to check if the email address a user submits for login exists. If not, the system will ask them to provide a valid one instead.

However, this tool cannot verify if the submitted email address actually belongs to the user, meaning one could theoretically log in using someone else’s email address. Email verification removes this uncertainty, making sure your email marketing campaigns actually reach their target audience.

Can email verification be turned off?

Yes. This article contains a step-by-step guide on disabling email verification.

 

To summarise: only verified email addresses can be found in the User Data tab. However,
you can access Unverified User Data as well and use it for marketing purposes if you desire to do so.