Are claims of 90 million email 'protestors' who do more than mark as spam accurate, and do ESPs sell data?

Email marketer from Email Geeks Slack questions the high number of 90 million 'protestors' if it means tangible efforts beyond just marking as spam.

Email marketer from Senderock.io explains that email recipients may engage in other actions, such as unsubscribing, blocking senders, or creating filters, which are steps 'beyond' simply marking as spam.

Email marketer from Email Geeks Slack asserts that no reputable ESP would sell anyone's data.

Email marketer from Email Geeks Slack states that selling bounce data is a lucrative revenue stream for many ESPs.

Email marketer from Mailjet.com describes that recipients reporting email as spam contributes to blacklists, influencing sender reputation and deliverability, implying that some recipients take action beyond deleting unwanted emails.

Marketer from Email Geeks states that no reputable ESP would sell anyone's data.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that selling bounce data is a lucrative revenue stream for many ESPs and that it is a main data feed for verification services, which is why their coverage of non-US addresses is poor.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests the 90 million figure comes from the rejection of the sender's own spam efforts.

Expert from wordtothewise.com shares the opinion that there are ESP's selling data to 3rd parties.

Expert from Email Geeks shares an email received claiming 90 million email recipients are “protestors” who “go beyond reporting your mail as spam”, suggesting this claim is likely false.

Expert from Email Geeks clarifies that some ESPs do sell data to list hygiene companies, which has been confirmed by others in the past.

Expert from wordtothewise.com shares that she knows of data sales through ESPs to 3rd parties and has seen examples of it but no hard proof - but there are enough breadcrumbs to make her concerned about what is happening

Documentation from Spamhaus.org explains that spam traps are email addresses used to identify and block spammers, implying that active management and use of such traps exist.

Documentation from AWS describes that sender reputation depends on factors like bounce rates and complaint rates. Recipients actively marking emails as spam contributes to these metrics.

Documentation from Validity.com describes that data privacy regulations and ethical guidelines influence how ESPs handle user data, suggesting constraints on data selling practices.