Privacy basics - Thunderbird: Difference between revisions
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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.''' | 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 ([http:// | 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://kb.mozillazine.org/images/Tbird15_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 (Thunderbird 1.5) or "Load Images" button (Thunderbird 2.0) 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 | 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 in Thunderbird 1.5, go to "[[Menu differences in Windows, Linux, and Mac|Tools -> Options]] -> Privacy -> General" ([http://kb.mozillazine.org/images/Tbird15_privacy_options.png screenshot]) and make the desired changes. | ||
Although it can only be modified from the about:config editor (select "Options -> Advanced -> Config Editor ), the | [[Thunderbird 2.0 installation issues| Starting in Thunderbird version 2.0]] these menu options are no longer available. Thunderbird 2.0 blocks all remote images by default. You can change this setting by opening the [[About:config_entries|Config editor]] and toggling the preference, ''mailnews.message_display.disable_remote_image'' to "false", but this is not recommended since it will allow loading of all remote images and spammers will be able to verify your e-mail address, as mentioned earlier. Instead, you can enable remote images for a given email address by clicking on "Click here to always load remote images from ..." in the e-mail message, as shown below:<br> | ||
[[Image:Tbird Remote Images.png]]<br> 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 to which you can't reply. | |||
Although it can only be modified from the about:config editor (select "Options -> Advanced -> Config Editor ), the preference, ''mail.trusteddomains'' will allow you to specify entire email domains from which to automatically display remote images. Note that there are obvious security implications in 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).<br>Subdomains are '''not''' allowed. (I.E.: forums.mozilla.com is not allowed).<br> Multiple Domains '''are''' allowed. (I.E.: mozilla.com,mozilla.org). Note that the separator is a comma, and that there are no spaces. | Wildcards are '''not''' allowed. (I.E.: *.mozilla.com is not allowed).<br>Subdomains are '''not''' allowed. (I.E.: forums.mozilla.com is not allowed).<br> Multiple Domains '''are''' allowed. (I.E.: mozilla.com,mozilla.org). Note that the separator is a comma, and that there are no spaces. | ||
Revision as of 04:03, 30 September 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 (Thunderbird 1.5) or "Load Images" button (Thunderbird 2.0) 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 in Thunderbird 1.5, go to "Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> General" (screenshot) and make the desired changes.
Starting in Thunderbird version 2.0 these menu options are no longer available. Thunderbird 2.0 blocks all remote images by default. You can change this setting by opening the Config editor and toggling the preference, mailnews.message_display.disable_remote_image to "false", but this is not recommended since it will allow loading of all remote images and spammers will be able to verify your e-mail address, as mentioned earlier. Instead, you can enable remote images for a given email address by clicking on "Click here to always load remote images from ..." in the e-mail message, as shown below:
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 to which you can't reply.
Although it can only be modified from the about:config editor (select "Options -> Advanced -> Config Editor ), the preference, mail.trusteddomains will allow you to specify entire email domains from which to automatically display remote images. Note that there are obvious security implications in 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.
