?To protect your privacy, Thunderbird has blocked remote images in this message.?...

generator12

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 9, 2010
Messages
666
Using [FONT=Lucida Grande, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]T-Bird for my email app. Does anyone have an idea how blocking me from seeing something protects my privacy? Seems to me that it's protecting the privacy of whomever sent me the "remote image".

Mozilla support says this:
[/FONT] Remote content is a privacy concern because it allows the message sender to know:
  • each time you view the message
  • rough details about what application and what platform you are using
  • your current geographic location (a rough approximation by IP address)
  • that your email address is actually used ("alive")
[FONT=Lucida Grande, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Does this sound right? How can clicking on a .jpg or .pdf file contained within a message which has been downloaded trigger any of these things? I don't get it and I'm not sure I believe it.

Comments from the knowledgeable people?
[/FONT]
 

MTboatguy

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Jul 8, 2010
Messages
8,988
All email clients have this ability to block images for privacy and security concerns, there can be malicious code in images that use the backdoor to infect your computer with viruses, adware, keyloggers, all kinds of bad stuff can be included.
 

generator12

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 9, 2010
Messages
666
Guys, I certainly understand the danger posted by executables - I think virtually everybody does. But for a .pdf or .jpg to pose such a threat other than to contain something infectious which can be opened by my viewer - Hamrick's Vuepro, which I doubt, it would need to communicate back out to the hacker. Now maybe they can do this, but if so it's total news to me. I guess that's what's got me asking. It just seem incongruous to prevent me from seeing something in the name of protecting my privacy.
 
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bruceb58

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 5, 2006
Messages
30,454
Guys, I certainly understand the danger posted by executables - I think virtually everybody does. But for a .pdf or .jpg to pose such a threat other than to contain something infectious which can be opened by my viewer - Hamrick's Vuepro, which I doubt, it would need to communicate back out to the hacker. Now maybe they can do this, but if so it's total news to me. I guess that's what's got me asking. It just seem incongruous to prevent me from seeing something in the name of protecting my privacy.

http://news.cnet.com/Trojan-horse-ex...3-5385995.html

I never allow anything to show in an email I have no interest reading or who I don't know who sent it.

Do you really think the email programs do this for no reason?
 
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MTboatguy

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Jul 8, 2010
Messages
8,988
You want me to send you a .jpg and a .pdf that will ruin your day?.

That said, you can turn that safety feature off in Thunderbird if you so desire, but do so at your own risk.
 
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