[Dovecot] Idea: POP3 deletion as a flag

Noel Butler noel.butler at ausics.net
Mon May 6 02:59:04 EEST 2013


On Sat, 2013-05-04 at 05:29 -0700, Professa Dementia wrote:

> On 5/3/2013 7:38 PM, Noel Butler wrote:
> 
> >
> > Incidentally, the last time I read the pop3 RFC, admittedly some decade
> > or so ago (and yeah it's likely been updated since?) I can not recall
> > there ever being a  "MUST" or "SHOULD" when it comes to deleting
> > messages (it might have been deliberately omitted)  apart from the
> > server MUST NOT delete messages that are not marked for deletion.
> 
> FYI:  In addition to the significant privacy and legal concerns, adding 


Hardly see it as that, I can hardly see ISP's etc using this option,
especially since it still counts towards users quota, I'm sure the 
U.S. Govt would love this feature in there out of control power trips to
spy on people, but in all honesty, it is likely to be used mostly, in
the business world because your emails in work, are not yours, they are
the property of your employers, and that's so in many EU jurisdictions
as well.


> and enabling this option makes the server non-compliant.  The section 
> under "The UPDATE State" is clear about the behavior of the server:
> 
> "The POP3 server removes all messages marked as deleted from the maildrop"
> 


Did you read what I actually said? and in your quotation you have even
verified it, RFC's are very clear about compliance instructions,  by use
of the words  SHOULD, MUST, MUST NOT  ... etc 

There is no such word in the RFC relating to deleting marked deleted
messages, as you have also even quoted, therefore, Timo's proposed flags
do not breach compliancy.



>  They are legally responsible for their actions and have to 
> answer for those actions if they end up violating any laws.  I do not 


Of course, it's why it is not being a default action.


> feel that an option like this should be in the public version of the 
> server, however, even if it is off by default.
> 
> 


I can not understand why you are so outraged by this, if you feel so
strongly, just don't enable the option,  or is that too simple...



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