Hi, I just saw this article via Pocket in firefox, https://www.vox.com/recode/23332959/email-tracking-privacy and I wondered if that is an issue in fedora. It seems that in order for such tracking to work, it has to have the cooperation of the operating system, or at least the mail client. And, I would think that open source mail clients don't allow that. Am I right?
On Tue, 2022-09-13 at 08:31 -0700, stan via users wrote:
Hi, I just saw this article via Pocket in firefox, https://www.vox.com/recode/23332959/email-tracking-privacy and I wondered if that is an issue in fedora. It seems that in order for such tracking to work, it has to have the cooperation of the operating system, or at least the mail client. And, I would think that open source mail clients don't allow that. Am I right?
AFAIK it's not an operating system issue as such.
Turn off read receipts in your MUA (I've always argued that they are basically useless).
Also, don't open HTML mail but use the plaintext alternative where available. If you can't avoid HTML mail, many mail services have some tracking protection built-in.
poc
On Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:06:24 +0100 Patrick O'Callaghan pocallaghan@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, 2022-09-13 at 08:31 -0700, stan via users wrote:
Hi, I just saw this article via Pocket in firefox, https://www.vox.com/recode/23332959/email-tracking-privacy and I wondered if that is an issue in fedora. It seems that in order for such tracking to work, it has to have the cooperation of the operating system, or at least the mail client. And, I would think that open source mail clients don't allow that. Am I right?
AFAIK it's not an operating system issue as such.
Turn off read receipts in your MUA (I've always argued that they are basically useless).
I don't find any switch to do that in claws-mail, so maybe it doesn't have the ability to send return receipts.
Also, don't open HTML mail but use the plaintext alternative where available. If you can't avoid HTML mail, many mail services have some tracking protection built-in.
claws converts all messages to text, and it takes a plugin to view html mail. So, that probably meets this requirement.
Phew, safe.
Thanks.
On 9/13/22 08:31, stan via users wrote:
I just saw this article via Pocket in firefox, https://www.vox.com/recode/23332959/email-tracking-privacy and I wondered if that is an issue in fedora. It seems that in order for such tracking to work, it has to have the cooperation of the operating system, or at least the mail client. And, I would think that open source mail clients don't allow that. Am I right?
Thunderbird doesn't load images by default. You have to opt-in. I had someone I know that sends out business emails ask me why I don't ever read the emails. I told him that I do, but I don't allow tracking, so his system doesn't think I am.
In Thunderbird, there's also an option for how to handle read receipts. By default, it's set to "ask".
On Tue, 2022-09-13 at 09:21 -0700, stan via users wrote:
On Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:06:24 +0100 Patrick O'Callaghan pocallaghan@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, 2022-09-13 at 08:31 -0700, stan via users wrote:
Hi, I just saw this article via Pocket in firefox, https://www.vox.com/recode/23332959/email-tracking-privacy and I wondered if that is an issue in fedora. It seems that in order for such tracking to work, it has to have the cooperation of the operating system, or at least the mail client. And, I would think that open source mail clients don't allow that. Am I right?
AFAIK it's not an operating system issue as such.
Turn off read receipts in your MUA (I've always argued that they are basically useless).
I don't find any switch to do that in claws-mail, so maybe it doesn't have the ability to send return receipts.
Sounds likely. Evolution does support them but I turn them off.
Also, don't open HTML mail but use the plaintext alternative where available. If you can't avoid HTML mail, many mail services have some tracking protection built-in.
claws converts all messages to text, and it takes a plugin to view html mail. So, that probably meets this requirement.
Sure.
Phew, safe.
Thanks.
Cheers
poc
On Tue, 13 Sep 2022 22:24:57 +0100 pocallaghan@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, 2022-09-13 at 09:21 -0700, stan via users wrote:
On Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:06:24 +0100 Patrick O'Callaghan pocallaghan@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, 2022-09-13 at 08:31 -0700, stan via users wrote:
Hi, I just saw this article via Pocket in firefox, https://www.vox.com/recode/23332959/email-tracking-privacy and I wondered if that is an issue in fedora. It seems that in order for such tracking to work, it has to have the cooperation of the operating system, or at least the mail client. And, I would think that open source mail clients don't allow that. Am I right?
AFAIK it's not an operating system issue as such.
Turn off read receipts in your MUA (I've always argued that they are basically useless).
I don't find any switch to do that in claws-mail, so maybe it doesn't have the ability to send return receipts.
When you are in the compose window the options tab at the top has a check box for return receipts.
David
Sounds likely. Evolution does support them but I turn them off.
Also, don't open HTML mail but use the plaintext alternative where available. If you can't avoid HTML mail, many mail services have some tracking protection built-in.
claws converts all messages to text, and it takes a plugin to view html mail. So, that probably meets this requirement.
Sure.
Phew, safe.
Thanks.
Cheers
poc _______________________________________________ users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-leave@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue
claws converts all messages to text, and it takes a plugin to view html mail. So, that probably meets this requirement.
And I don't have the plugin installed in my claws-mail, so if I really think I want to see an html mail, I can use "open with" (but 99.9% of it I just throw away).
On Tue, 2022-09-13 at 22:24 +0100, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
Evolution does support them but I turn them off.
(read receipts)
Likewise (and no image loading by default), though I did once have someone tell me that I'd read a message they sent me because they had the receipt.
They are a bit of a furphy. I may have glanced at an email, but not read it. I may have a received an email but not ever looked at it, or my server may have (there are receipts for them, too).
On Tue, 2022-09-13 at 16:32 -0500, dwoodyard@rdwoodyard.com wrote:
When you are in the compose window the options tab at the top has a check box for return receipts.
That's for if you want one of your own posts to request receipts from the recipient. They were concerned about responses when they're asked to provide receipts to mail they've received.
On Tue, 13 Sep 2022 08:31:37 -0700 stan via users users@lists.fedoraproject.org wrote:
I just saw this article via Pocket in firefox, https://www.vox.com/recode/23332959/email-tracking-privacy and I wondered if that is an issue in fedora. It seems that in order for such tracking to work, it has to have the cooperation of the operating system, or at least the mail client. And, I would think that open source mail clients don't allow that. Am I right?
Thanks to everyone for their responses. It seems I was way behind the curve on this.
I finally remembered to do the right thing, and checked the claws-mail online man pages. It does support both sending and receiving return receipts.
Here is the snippet from their FAQ about this:
""" Does Claws Mail support Return Receipts?
Yes.
To request a Return Receipt use '/Options/Request Return Receipt' in the Compose window.
When you receive a message that requests a Return Receipt a notification area is shown just above the message view. You can either use the 'Send receipt' button, or ignore the request - no receipts are sent automatically.
You can choose to never send Return Receipts by using the option on the Mail Handling/Sending page of the Preferences. When you use this option, all Return Receipt requests are ignored and you will not be prompted to send one. """
And I have that turned off, so at some point in the past I must have been concerned about it, turned it off, and forgot completely ever being concerned. Sigh.
On 14Sep2022 10:25, Tim ignored_mailbox@yahoo.com.au wrote:
Likewise (and no image loading by default), though I did once have someone tell me that I'd read a message they sent me because they had the receipt.
They are a bit of a furphy. I may have glanced at an email, but not read it. I may have a received an email but not ever looked at it, or my server may have (there are receipts for them, too).
Aye. I stashed this message in my sig quotes long ago:
Netscape Messenger has displayed the message. There is no guarantee that the content has been read or understood. - reality check by Return-Receipt handler in NS Messenger 4.5
Cheers, Cameron Simpson cs@cskk.id.au
On Thu, 2022-09-15 at 08:15 +1000, Cameron Simpson wrote:
On 14Sep2022 10:25, Tim ignored_mailbox@yahoo.com.au wrote:
Likewise (and no image loading by default), though I did once have someone tell me that I'd read a message they sent me because they had the receipt.
They are a bit of a furphy. I may have glanced at an email, but not read it. I may have a received an email but not ever looked at it, or my server may have (there are receipts for them, too).
Aye. I stashed this message in my sig quotes long ago:
Netscape Messenger has displayed the message. There is no guarantee that the content has been read or understood. - reality check by Return-Receipt handler in NS Messenger 4.5
Exactly. That's why:
1. Not getting a read receipt cannot be interpreted as meaning the receiver has not read the message. They might have turned receipts off. 2. Getting a read receipt cannot be interpreted as meaning that the receiver did read the message (let alone understood it).
To sum up: read receipts are a misfeature, except in the special case of internal mail where they are part of corporate policy.
poc
On Thu, Sep 15, 2022 at 7:34 AM Patrick O'Callaghan pocallaghan@gmail.com wrote:
1. Not getting a read receipt cannot be interpreted as meaning the
receiver has not read the message. They might have turned receipts off.
- Getting a read receipt cannot be interpreted as meaning that the receiver did read the message (let alone understood it).
To sum up: read receipts are a misfeature, except in the special case of internal mail where they are part of corporate policy.
In the good old days when SPAM started we were advised to disable read receipts for external mail because it would advertise that the address was valid. Whenever I set up a new email client I send a test message to check that the address works and is not sending read receipts. I
SPAM I see now often has an address for bounces -- I've wondered about generating bounce replied to SPAM (in addition to forwarding the message to "abuse@<internet giant>.com"). Firefox lets you set read receipt handling for 3 categories: messages with your address in the "To" or "Cc", "Sender outside your domain", or "other cases". I have all set to "ask" and very rarely get asked. I do get SPAM messages with phony "From" addresses using the domain of one email service I use.
On Thu, Sep 15, 2022 at 10:05 AM Patrick O'Callaghan pocallaghan@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, 2022-09-15 at 09:02 -0300, George N. White III wrote:
Firefox lets you set read receipt handling for 3 categories: messages with your address in the "To" or "Cc", "Sender outside your domain", or "other cases".
Firefox? Do you mean Thunderbird?
Yes Thunderbird, not Firefox (should have finished morning coffee before posting.).
On Thu, 2022-09-15 at 11:34 +0100, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
- Getting a read receipt cannot be interpreted as meaning that the receiver did read the message (let alone understood it).
As with SMSs, you only really know if it was received and understood when you get a reply.
To sum up: read receipts are a misfeature, except in the special case of internal mail where they are part of corporate policy.
I'm reminded of a scene in a tv comedy series about government bureaucracy, where in one episode their email server was down, but they were still emailing each other by passing their laptops around. Something tells me the writers didn't just invent that scenario out of thin air.
-
Cameron Simpson -
dwoodyard＠rdwoodyard.com -
George N. White III -
Patrick O'Callaghan -
Samuel Sieb -
stan -
Tim -
Tom Horsley