Entourage 2004: Annoying graphics "privacy protection" in Preview

[Craig Deutsch]

I just upgraded to Office 2004 (from Office X); I was largely sold on
Entourage¹s improvements alone.

Alas, every set of improvements unfortunately always includes at least one
that for many people makes getting work done a bit more circuitous:
Entourage evidently will not automatically show pictures and other graphics
in the preview pane. Instead, in the header information one gets a warning
that "To protect your privacy, some pictures were not downloaded..." There
is a link that provides access to these graphics, but it must be clicked for
each email that contains whatever graphics that Entourage considers
potentially offensive.

In my case, I don't want or need Entourage protecting my privacy by deciding
which content it shall reveal. Yet I cannot find any preference setting to
override it. In Preferences>View there is a box to indicate whether one
wants pictures included, but this does not override the "privacy
protection."

<Start rant> In response to what has become (IMO) an over-indulgent
(largely) American sensitivity, I can understand Microsoft¹s apparent desire
to protect us from graphically-represented ills by including such safety
belts. Jittery IT managers might like this feature. But for us at home,
however, Entourage is probably not used by your average Mac owner; it's more
"professional grade" than Mail. In that vein, I think one should be able to
see ALL of one's email without clicking on the seat belt release each time
in order to load the remaining content. <End rant.>

In short, is there a way to turn off this "feature?" Have I missed
something incredibly simple but perhaps buried? Thanks.

 

[Grateful]

Entourage 2004: Annoying graphics "privacy protection" in PreviewThe privacy protection is not to spare you potentially offensive graphics, it's to keep your e-mail address out of the hands of spammers. What they do is add a tag to the image source tag in an html e-mail that reports back to the server that you've viewed the message.

Still, Microsoft has no business "protecting your privacy" without your permission!
I just upgraded to Office 2004 (from Office X); I was largely sold on Entourage's improvements alone.

Alas, every set of improvements unfortunately always includes at least one that for many people makes getting work done a bit more circuitous: Entourage evidently will not automatically show pictures and other graphics in the preview pane. Instead, in the header information one gets a warning that "To protect your privacy, some pictures were not downloaded..." There is a link that provides access to these graphics, but it must be clicked for each email that contains whatever graphics that Entourage considers potentially offensive.

In my case, I don't want or need Entourage protecting my privacy by deciding which content it shall reveal. Yet I cannot find any preference setting to override it. In Preferences>View there is a box to indicate whether one wants pictures included, but this does not override the "privacy protection."

<Start rant> In response to what has become (IMO) an over-indulgent (largely) American sensitivity, I can understand Microsoft's apparent desire to protect us from graphically-represented ills by including such safety belts. Jittery IT managers might like this feature. But for us at home, however, Entourage is probably not used by your average Mac owner; it's more "professional grade" than Mail. In that vein, I think one should be able to see ALL of one's email without clicking on the seat belt release each time in order to load the remaining content. <End rant.>

In short, is there a way to turn off this "feature?" Have I missed something incredibly simple but perhaps buried? Thanks.

 

[Dave Cortright]

Why don¹t you add the e-mail addresses and domains you trust to your address
book and mailing list manager? Then Entourage will only warn you for mail
from untrusted senders.

 

[Barry Wainwright]

I just upgraded to Office 2004 (from Office X); I was largely sold on
Entourage¹s improvements alone.

Alas, every set of improvements unfortunately always includes at least one
that for many people makes getting work done a bit more circuitous: Entourage
evidently will not automatically show pictures and other graphics in the
preview pane. Instead, in the header information one gets a warning that "To
protect your privacy, some pictures were not downloaded..." There is a link
that provides access to these graphics, b ut it must be clicked for each email
that contains whatever graphics that Entourage considers potentially
offensive.

In my case, I don't want or need Entourage protecting my privacy by deciding
which content it shall reveal. Yet I cannot find any preference setting to
override it. In Preferences>View there is a box to indicate whether one wants
pictures included, but this does not override the "privacy protection."

<Start rant> In response to what has become (IMO) an over-indulgent (largely)
American sensitivity, I can understand Microsoft¹s apparent desire to protect
us from graphically-represented ills by including such safety belts. Jittery
IT managers might like this feature. But for us at home, however, Entourage
is probably not used by your average Mac owner; it's more "professional grade"
than Mail. In that vein, I think one should be able to see ALL of one's email
without clicking on the seat belt release each time in order to load the
remaining content. <End rant.>

In short, is there a way to turn off this "feature?" Have I missed something
incredibly simple but perhaps buried? Thanks.

A new security feature in Entourage 2004 blocks the display of pictures (and
other linked mail content) hosted on remote sites. Images can be loaded for
individual messages by clicking on the ŒDownload Pictures¹ link in the
yellow message status bar. This was a huge feature request from users that
found the all embracing ŒAll Pictures¹ or ŒNo Pictures¹ too limiting.

There is a setting in the security section of the preferences to
automatically download pictures from recipients who are in your address
book. That should suffice for most users. If you really want to download all
images from all sources, you can put ".com", ".net", ".org" etc to your list
of safe domains in the Junk Mail Protection dialog. Then, images from all
untrustworthy sources will be downloaded.

 

[Craig Deutsch]

Thank you for that information. A further questions:

If the security feature is intended to thwart confirmation to a spammer that
a particular email was opened, does clicking on ³Download pictures² still
prevent this confirmation ‹ or does clicking it send that confirmation back
to the sender¹s server? I have a hunch that it must trigger the HTML tag to
report back if in fact there is one buried within the message¹s graphics.
Sounds like the ³Download pictures² is a ³do-so-at-your-own-risk² kind of
function, and the best way around this your solution (also suggested by Dave
Cortright).

CMD

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Naturally, Download pictures will send a confirmation of your email address
back - if it's set to do that. It puts the ball in your court - you take
responsibility. If you know the sender, or are already subscribed to the
sender's distribution list, there's usually no harm in clicking OK since
they know you're there already and aren't spammers. Otherwise, avoid.
Similarly, the preference to allow automatic downloading from people in your
address book is off by default - since it's quite common for spammers (not
to mention worms - sort of viruses - although so far none of them can work
this way on the Mac) to spoof email address of someone in your address book.
So it's up to you to decide if the convenience is worth the risk. I find it
pretty simple to click Download pictures in the cases where I know
everything's OK.


--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP Entourage
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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From: Craig Deutsch <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2004 18:38:24 -0700
Subject: Re: Entourage 2004: Annoying graphics "privacy protection" in
Preview

Thank you for that information. A further questions:

If the security feature is intended to thwart confirmation to a spammer that
a particular email was opened, does clicking on ³Download pictures² still
prevent this confirmation ‹ or does clicking it send that confirmation back
to the sender¹s server? I have a hunch that it must trigger the HTML tag to
report back if in fact there is one buried within the message¹s graphics.
Sounds like the ³Download pictures² is a ³do-so-at-your-own-risk² kind of
function, and the best way around this your solution (also suggested by Dave
Cortright).

CMD