[LINK] mail2web service

[Craig Sanders]

On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 09:02:48AM +1100, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> I have a question about a service available to "anonymously" collect 
> email on the web from different email accounts.
> 
> http://mail2web.com
> 
> What's in it for them? It's free. You are using your actual username 
> and password through a third party, so there must be privacy risks 
> involved. Of course the descriptions only state the benefits, which 
> seem quite attractive. http://mail2web.com/check-email/
> But there is no mention, of course, of the shadow side.
> 
> What am I missing here? 

they would make their money with advertising. and possibly by gathering
data on users to sell to others.

check their privacy policy (if they have one) to see what they allow
themselves to do with the data they collect about you.

> Is it "safe" to use? 

personally, i think you'd have to be completely insane to use such
a service - or provide ANY third party with your login and password
details for anything, let alone your email account(s).

even if they're 100% squeaky-clean and above board, using them still
involves you giving out your login and password.  THAT's the bit
that's insane.  trust some unknown third party, and all their staff, and
anyone else who may have access to their systems with your password?

and that's ignoring the privacy issues.

> Do any of you use such services?

nope.

if i needed webmail, i'd use google mail. possibly even forward (some
of) my mail to gmail when i'm travelling.

mostly, though, i'd just ssh in to my mail server from wherever
i happen to be and use mutt.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>