My cousin has the evil HOTBAR in her Outlook Express.
I have Outlook 2003 at work. When I get an e-mail from her,
Outlook doesn't show pictures. I get the warning which includes:
"To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download"
Now if I try to reply, I get another alert:
To complete this action, Outlook must
download content from a server other than
your e-mail server. This could verify to the
sender that your e-mail address is valid and
increase the amount of junk e-mail you receive
in the future.
Is this true? Do HOTBAR code pictures with the e-mail
of the recipient to harvest more spam victims?
If so, can Outlook be configured not to use pictures
in replies?
Another option is whether you include the original *linked* images as
embedded photos within your reply. While Outlook may block linked
images which can be used as web beacons, the default setup in Outlook
has your reply include a copy of that image (if you actually yanked a
copy of it). In OL2002, under Tools -> Options -> Mail Format ->
Internet Format, disable the option:
"When an HTML message contains pictures on the Internet, send a copy
of the pictures instead of the reference to their location".
Besides bloating the size of your reply with the image rather than using
the same link in the e-mail that you received, the recipient may also be
blocking linked images just like you and not have to bother with them.
Personally I see no reason to bloat my message with an embedded copy of
an image that the sender decided to provide a link to rather than
include in their e-mail. The recipient can decide if they want to see
the linked images, my reply remains small, their blocked image filter
still works, and less bandwidth is used by both sender (me) and the
recipient. Even if they are legit images, like the family picnic, the
recipient should have the same options as I in deciding whether or not
to retrieve those pics.
When you send your HTML-coded reply, make sure the Format -> "Send
pictures over the Internet" is *not* checked. This enables the page to
be viewed with an Internet connection (i.e., the images are in the
e-mail instead of links to them). If you disable the above "When an
HTML message ... send copy of pictures" then this Format -> "Send
pictures over the Internet" will also be disabled by default when
composing a new mail.
By DISABLING the automatic operation to embed images in your new e-mail,
you will not be able to send web pages by e-mail (i.e., include a web
page in your e-mail) without losing the graphics content. For example,
when going to
www.yahoo.com and sending their home page using File ->
Send to -> Email recipient, the pictures will be missing which will also
screwup the HTML layout so the HTML version in the e-mail doesn't match
the web page. However, I have yet to see the big advantage of sending
the contents of a web page versus sending a link to that web page.
Obviously trying to send the web page will make for an e-mail that is
far more huge than just sending a link to it. Again, I'm not rude to my
recipients and a plain-text mail with a URL link takes less disk space
and bandwidth to get my message than a bloated one containing the web
page's content.
