Privacy basics - Thunderbird: Difference between revisions

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When you receive a message with remote images, Thunderbird will display an alert stating that remote images have been blocked, and the images in the message body will be replaced with simple place-holders ([http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/specs/images/blockedimages.png screenshot]). If you do want to view the remote images—for example, if you subscribe to an e-mail newsletter that regularly includes remote images—all you need to do is click the "Show Images" button that appears to the right of the alert message.  
When you receive a message with remote images, Thunderbird will display an alert stating that remote images have been blocked, and the images in the message body will be replaced with simple place-holders ([http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/specs/images/blockedimages.png screenshot]). If you do want to view the remote images—for example, if you subscribe to an e-mail newsletter that regularly includes remote images—all you need to do is click the "Show Images" button that appears to the right of the alert message.  


Thunderbird's default setting is to allow the loading of remote images from people who are in your Personal Address Book. If you wish to change this setting, or if you wish to allow the loading of all remote images, go to the "[[Menu differences in Windows, Linux, and Mac|Tools]]" menu and select "Options -> Privacy -> General", and make the changes as desired ([http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/specs/images/privacysettings.png screenshot]). This tab is not more available since [[Thunderbird 2.0 installation issues|2.0 version]]. You can still change that setting by modifying mailnews.message_display.disable_remote_image in the [[About:config_entries|Config editor]]. Thunderbird 2.0 blocks all remote images by default. You can enable remote images for an email address by clicking on "Click here to always load remote images from ...". That adds an entry to an address book that has "Allow remote images in HTML mail" checked. You might want to create a images address book and select it instead of the personal address book if its for a newsletter that you can't reply to.
Thunderbird's default setting is to allow the loading of remote images from people who are in your Personal Address Book. If you wish to change this setting, or if you wish to allow the loading of all remote images, go to the "[[Menu differences in Windows, Linux, and Mac|Tools]]" menu and select "Options -> Privacy -> General", and make the changes as desired ([http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/specs/images/privacysettings.png screenshot]). The "Privacy -> General" tab is not more available since [[Thunderbird 2.0 installation issues|2.0 version]]. You can still change that setting by modifying mailnews.message_display.disable_remote_image in the [[About:config_entries|Config editor]]. Thunderbird 2.0 blocks all remote images by default. You can enable remote images for an email address by clicking on "Click here to always load remote images from ...". That adds an entry to an address book that has "Allow remote images in HTML mail" checked. You might want to create a images address book and select it instead of the personal address book if its for a newsletter that you can't reply to.


Although it can only be modified from the about:config editor (select "Options -> Advanced -> Config Editor ), the setting "mail.trusteddomains" will allow you to specify entire email domains to automatically display remote images from.  Note that there are obvious security implications of using this unless you can guarantee that forged email that appears to come from the trusted domain will never reach your inbox. The format for this key is as follows:
Although it can only be modified from the about:config editor (select "Options -> Advanced -> Config Editor ), the setting "mail.trusteddomains" will allow you to specify entire email domains to automatically display remote images from.  Note that there are obvious security implications of using this unless you can guarantee that forged email that appears to come from the trusted domain will never reach your inbox. The format for this key is as follows:

Revision as of 16:11, 8 May 2007

By default, Thunderbird blocks remote images and other content in messages from people you don't know. This protects your privacy because spammers can use remote content to detect if and when you've viewed a message from them, and thus to verify your e-mail address.

When you receive a message with remote images, Thunderbird will display an alert stating that remote images have been blocked, and the images in the message body will be replaced with simple place-holders (screenshot). If you do want to view the remote images—for example, if you subscribe to an e-mail newsletter that regularly includes remote images—all you need to do is click the "Show Images" button that appears to the right of the alert message.

Thunderbird's default setting is to allow the loading of remote images from people who are in your Personal Address Book. If you wish to change this setting, or if you wish to allow the loading of all remote images, go to the "Tools" menu and select "Options -> Privacy -> General", and make the changes as desired (screenshot). The "Privacy -> General" tab is not more available since 2.0 version. You can still change that setting by modifying mailnews.message_display.disable_remote_image in the Config editor. Thunderbird 2.0 blocks all remote images by default. You can enable remote images for an email address by clicking on "Click here to always load remote images from ...". That adds an entry to an address book that has "Allow remote images in HTML mail" checked. You might want to create a images address book and select it instead of the personal address book if its for a newsletter that you can't reply to.

Although it can only be modified from the about:config editor (select "Options -> Advanced -> Config Editor ), the setting "mail.trusteddomains" will allow you to specify entire email domains to automatically display remote images from. Note that there are obvious security implications of using this unless you can guarantee that forged email that appears to come from the trusted domain will never reach your inbox. The format for this key is as follows:

Wildcards are not allowed. (I.E.: *.mozilla.com is not allowed).
Subdomains are not allowed. (I.E.: forums.mozilla.com is not allowed).
Multiple Domains are allowed. (I.E.: mozilla.com,mozilla.org). Note that the separator is a comma, and that there are no spaces.

See also

  • For information on other security-related features in Thunderbird, including master passwords and certificates, see the Privacy and security category.