email

Podcast

There's an Email Conspiracy! — Mac Geek Gab 914

Dave Hamilton & John F. Braun · · Add Comment

Dave seems to think there’s an email conspiracy, and he explains how to avoid it to you and John. That’s not all, of course. Your Quick Tips help everyone use markup better, create a “Start the Day” shortcut, use Focus better, and more. Press play and listen as your two geeks share all of this and much, much more. Have fun…and don’t get caught!

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ProtonMail Now Blocks Tracking Pixels and Hides Your IP address

Andrew Orr ·

ProtonMail now blocks tracking pixels and hides your IP address, the company announced on Wednesday. The web app is mentioned so these features may not be present in the mobile apps.

By default, ProtonMail on the web now protects your privacy by: Blocking tracking pixels commonly found in newsletters and promotional emails, preventing senders from spying on your mail. Hiding your IP address from third parties so your location remains private.

Update: A ProtonMail spokesperson confirmed that this is indeed only for the web app, and expanding it to the mobile apps is part of development plans.

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Everything You Wanted to Know About How Encrypted Email Works

Andrew Orr ·

ProtonMail published a nice blog post explaining how encrypted email works, and the various protocols that companies use.

End-to-end encryption for messages sent between ProtonMail users is automatic, and our integrated OpenPGP support makes it easy to send and receive PGP-encrypted E2EE messages to people that use PGP with other email providers. Proton also informs you when your messages are protected by E2EE with a small blue padlock (for other ProtonMail users) or green padlock (for OpenPGP users).

Podcast

Email, Atmos, and LiDAR...Oh My! — Mac Geek Gab 907

John F. Braun & Dave Hamilton · · Add Comment

You know what happens when your two favorite geeks get together, don’t you? Geeky talk about all kinds of things AND answers to all your questions. Listen as Dave and John help solve your email filtering issues, your Atmos setup, your house-cleaning needs, and more… all while ensuring everyone listening learns at least five new things. Press play…and enjoy this final episode of 2021!

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Stop Treating Email Like Slack

Charlotte Henry ·

Let’s face it, most people hate detailing with email – writing, reading, and organizing it. Wired dug into the science that may offer a solution.

Email is a valuable tool because it’s flexible, allows broad collaboration even with people outside your company, and it’s asynchronous, meaning the receiver and sender don’t need to both be online or working at the same time. “We’ve turned the advantages into disadvantages,” says Giurge. “It’s something that should be used as an asynchronous means of communication, and somehow we started using it as an ‘all the time’ means of communication. Instant messaging tools, such as Slack, may require an immediate acknowledgement—even if it’s just a GIF or thumbs up emoji—as they’re generally used as ways to collaborate on work at the same time. But it’s time to reconsider email more like old-fashioned paper mail: Upon receiving your broadband bill from your ISP, you don’t, after all, write a letter to confirm receipt and signal your intent to pay; you just pay it when you have a moment.

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DuckDuckGo Launches Free Email Protection Service

Andrew Orr ·

Privacy search engine DuckDuckGo has launched an Email Protection Service to protect against email trackers. You can get a free, personalized @duck.com address that will forward emails to your regular inbox.

We remove hidden trackers from incoming emails sent to this address, then forward them to your regular inbox for safer reading. This means if you use an email service like Gmail or Yahoo, it’s no problem! Emails sent to your Personal Duck Address will arrive there as usual so you can read your email like normal, in any app or on the web, worry-free.

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M1 Support Coming to Open Source Email Client ‘Thunderbird’

Andrew Orr ·

In the latest beta version of Thunderbird the company added a welcome surprise in the notes: Future support for Apple’s M1 Macs. These notes apply to Thunderbird version 87 beta 1 released February 26, 2021. What’s New: Native support for macOS devices built with Apple Silicon CPUs; New user interface for adding attachments; Clicking on an already-selected pill in the recipient list will now allow editing the address; Copying a large message to an IMAP server would sometimes prematurely display a time-out error; OpenPGP: Messages with a high compression ratio (over 10x) could not be decrypted; and other fixes and improvements.

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Email Spy Pixels are a Widespread Problem, Says BBC

Andrew Orr ·

At the BBC’s request, email service “Hey” analyzed its traffic and found two-thirds of emails sent to users contained a spy pixel.

Defenders of the trackers say they are a commonplace marketing tactic. This information can then be used to determine the impact of a specific email campaign, as well as to feed into more detailed customer profiles. Hey’s co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson says they amount to a “grotesque invasion of privacy”. And other experts have also questioned whether companies are being as transparent as required under law about their use.

These pixels are tiny 1×1 images embedded in photos that can track a variety of data points. You could turn off “Load Remote Images” automatically in Settings > Mail, but then of course they would load along with other photos when you want to see them.

‘SimpleLogin’ is an Open Source Alternative to Sign in With Apple
Cool Stuff Found

‘SimpleLogin’ is an Open Source Alternative to Sign in With Apple

Andrew Orr ·

Sign In with Apple lets you create accounts with your Apple ID for apps that support it. Its “Hide My Email” feature protects your email by forwarding emails to your actual email. SimpleLogin does the same; it lets you create random email aliases that forward emails to your true email address. This open source alternative to Sign In with Apple helps you keep your email safe from newsletters, websites, and more. It’s free to download and use and there is an optional subscription for advanced features like custom domains, unlimited aliases, or a catch-all alias.

TMO Deals

Clean Email 1-Year Subscription: $9.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on a one year subscription to Clean Email, an online bulk email cleaner designed to help you to take control of your mailbox. It relies on powerful rules and filters you can define to efficiently segment your mailbox into relevant groups, allowing you to quickly identify useful and clean up useless emails with a few clicks. One year is $9.99 through our deal.