Re: [Tails-testers] 2.0~rc1

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Author: k
Date:  
To: u
CC: tails-icedove, Tails list for early testers
Subject: Re: [Tails-testers] 2.0~rc1
On Tue, 19 Jan 2016 17:08:31 +0000
u <u@???> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> thanks anonym for your insight :)
>
> anonym:
> > sajolida:
> >> > exit-1:
> >>> >> On 2016-01-15 10:40, sajolida wrote:
> >>>> >>> exit-1:
> >>>> >>> But we'd be happy to see if we can maybe solve the reasons
> >>>> >>> that prevented you from switching to Icedove.
> >>> >>
> >>> >> Here's a few of the main reasons Icedove is not for me at the
> >>> >> moment:
> >>> >>
> >>> >> * 'Fetch headers only' doesn't work - blank download means
> >>> >> retrieving the message from the server
> >> >
> >> > I see a "Fetch headers only" advertised in Account Settings →
> >> > Server Settings. If it doesn't fetch the headers only then maybe
> >> > this is a bug and would be worth investigating, reporting, and
> >> > fixing. What exactly happens when this option is selected? I'm
> >> > not sure to understand what you mean by "blank download".
> > Hypothesis: it could also be a security feature implemented by
> > TorBirdy.
>
> > With the fetch headers option enabled I'm quite sure that selecting
> > a message that you only have the header for will trigger a download
> > of the full message. This is an info leak of your "usage pattern"
> > to the mail server, e.g. they can guess how much time you spend on
> > each message, which messages that are never read, how long you
> > spend on dealing with email and so on. Batch downloading all
> > messages at the same time mitigates this leak.
>
> All I've found (just had a quick look to TB code) is that TB disables
> auto fetching on startup and once you ask, all messages are fetched:
> https://github.com/ioerror/torbirdy/blob/master/chrome/content/preferences.js
> (line 367)
>
> Seems like one can disable this, but it might indeed leak information.
>
> >>> >> * There's no download message size limiter - good when data
> >>> >> restrictions need considering
> >> >
> >> > In Account Settings → Disk Space I see an option "To save disk
> >> > space, do not download messages larger than [ ] KB". Did you
> >> > try this? Does it do something else than what you expect?
> > Not that this option (and probably also some similar option about
> > not
>
> I think anonym wanted to say "Note that this option" etc.
>
> > downloading attachments) will leak similar info as above since the
> > mail server then can see when you download these messages manually.
>
> Ack. This is also an option which can be modified by the user from
> what I can see, but did not try it yet.
>
> Cheers!
> u.


Hello all
Sorry I haven't had time to follow up since the weekend. Sajolida's
point about 'Disk space' is right, and that also fixes my need to
'Fetch headers only'. So thanks, Icedove may still become a
worthy client for me. Also looking at Mutt (on Debian) though.
--
exit-1