5 ms·
There's an interesting tradeoff -- marketers no longer know your location, browser, client or how many times you've opened the email. However, any spammer now i
by gkoberger 13y ago
There's an interesting tradeoff -- marketers no longer know your location, browser, client or how many times you've opened the email. However, any spammer now instantly knows that the email address is valid.
It's probably an improvement, but not all the way there. For actual privacy, what GMail needs to do (and I realize this is slightly unfeasible due to the amount of email they receive) is instantly open and cache every single email to every single email address (including non-existent addresses).
- twakefield 13y agoAs far as I can tell, Gmail is not returning open data until the email is actually opened. Gmail is pretty good about identifying spam and putting it into recipients spam folders which is usually not opened.
- azakai 13y ago> There's an interesting tradeoff -- marketers no longer know your location, browser, or how many times you've opened the email. However, any spammer instantly knows that the email address is valid. Before, however, if you never clicked on "show images" then spammers knew nothing at all.
- gkoberger 13y agoYes, that's the tradeoff.
- YokoZar 13y agoI'm not sure spammers particularly care if they have a lot of email addresses that people don't really read. Google was already bouncing messages to invalid recipients, so completely nonexistent email addresses were already filtered. Granted, it's one step further to know if you're getting past the spam filter. But I feel like that's testable using your own accounts.
- tedunangst 13y agoIf you want to know if an email address is valid, you connect to gmail's server and send "RCPT TO:<example@gmail.com>" and they will tell you if it's valid or not.
- Goopplesoft 13y agoAre you sure about this? Just tested it out: openssl s_client -connect smtp.gmail.com:465 -crlf 220 mx.google.com ESMTP u17sm2709629qeb.4 - gsmtp helo 250 mx.google.com at your service auth login 334 VXNlcm5hbWU6 < BASE_64 USERNAME> 334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6 < BASE_64 PASSWORD> 235 2.7.0 Accepted MAIL FROM: <my_email> 250 2.1.0 OK u17sm2709629qeb.4 - gsmtp rcpt to: <my_email> 250 2.1.5 OK u17sm2709629qeb.4 - gsmtp rcpt to: <emaildne39g39jd9j9jfsdk@gmail.com> 250 2.1.5 OK u17sm2709629qeb.4 - gsmtp I get an OK with BS emails too...
- tedunangst 13y agoYou should try telnet to port 25 and don't login. If you're sending what could be an outgoing email, it is more likely to queue it. MAIL FROM:<tedu@tedunangst.com> 250 2.1.0 OK g15si484689qej.92 - gsmtp RCPT TO:<tedunangst1233141@gmail.com> 550-5.1.1 The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try 550-5.1.1 double-checking the recipient's email address for typos or 550-5.1.1 unnecessary spaces. Learn more at 550 5.1.1 http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?answer=6596 g15si484689qej.92 - gsmtp
- parhamn 13y agoCool, thanks!
- dspillett 13y agoThat will only tell you if the account exists. The request for an image tells you more: that that account is actually used.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- MichaelApproved 13y agoGoogle might only be turning it on for email that's trusted. They could be leaving images turned off for messages in the spam folder.
- mseebach 13y ago> However, any spammer now instantly knows that the email address is valid. That information is worth orders of magnitude less than it used to be, especially for Google hosted email as their spam protection is near-perfect. My email address is available in the clear in a number of archived mailing lists among other places, and I'm not getting any spam at all.