Thunderbird Filelink and Privacy Policy

[Mark Banner]

The Thunderbird project has built a feature to make it easier for users to send large files to their correspondents. The feature has been discussed as part of the normal Thunderbird project management process for over a year. The feature page is at:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Features/Thunderbird/BigFiles

(although the most punchy motivation is best explained by XKCD: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/file_transfer.png )

Thunderbird detects when users are about to send large attachments, and lets users opt-in to the feature (called Filelink).  If the user opts in, Thunderbird makes it easy for the user to create or connect to a storage service like YouSendIt, and then upload attachments to those services, if they wish. The links to those attachments are then automatically embedded into the email. All of the service providers have free plans.

This thread is specifically to inform a broader set of community members.  We believe the feature aligns with our Privacy Principles (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Privacy#Mozilla.27s_Privacy_Principles), matches user expectations, and moves the Mozilla Mission forward.

You can try the feature out with Thunderbird Beta builds, available at: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/channel

It is important to note that attachments are not stored on Mozilla servers, and the partners service come with their own privacy policies, terms of service, and that the feature has already gone through privacy, security, and policy reviews.

FAQs:

Q: Does Mozilla have any server-side data about which users have picked what provider?

A: No.

Q: What storage services are currently supported?

A: Right now, we're supporting YouSendIt. The UbuntuOne and SpiderOak storage services are planned to be added in future releases.

Q: What about encryption? Can these storage services view my attachments?

A: Unless you've encrypted the file before uploading, the storage services will be able to access the file you've uploaded - as will anybody who obtains the link to the attachment.  Users should decide on their own which service provider they trust with that responsibility. It should be noted that attachments sent using "normal" means are typically legible by anyone in the SMTP chain, and uploads to the service provider happen separately over HTTPS.

Q: Can you support service provider X or protocol Y?

A: We've got plans for supporting SpiderOak and UbuntuOne in the future. We also have an Up-for-grabs project available if anybody would like to try adding support for more services or protocols. Developer documentation for the Filelink feature can be found here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Thunderbird/Filelink_Providers

Q: What happened to supporting Dropbox?

A: We'd love to support Dropbox, but have not been able to reach agreement with them yet.  It should be clear that free attachment hosting costs service providers money, so each provider needs to opt-in as well to being built-in to Thunderbird.

Q: I don't like the idea of storing my files with third-parties like this... do regular attachments still work?

A: Regular email attachments still work the same as they always have. We've just given you the ability to choose to upload large attachments somewhere, if you wish. Thunderbird's notion of what a large file is defaults to 1MB, but can be customized in the Attachment pane of the Preferences dialog. The offer to upload can also be disabled entirely.

[nomi...@web.de]

I like the new big files feature and I will starting to test it this week in the beta build. But there is one topic, that is not mentioned in the FAQs part, what will happen with the uploaded file in long-term. Will it be deleted after downloading from the recipient, will it be deleted after a time period, can the user delete it or will the file remain forever on the server?

  

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[Marcio Merlone]

Em 30-05-2012 12:25, Mark Banner escreveu:

(although the most punchy motivation is best explained by XKCD: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/file_transfer.png )

Thunderbird detects when users are about to send large attachments, and lets users opt-in to the feature (called Filelink).  If the user opts in, Thunderbird makes it easy for the user to create or connect to a storage service like YouSendIt, and then upload attachments to those services, if they wish. The links to those attachments are then automatically embedded into the email. All of the service providers have free plans.

Really nice.

It would also be nice to have good documentation and details on how it works and what to do in order to help sysadmins to deploy their own storage service enterprise-wide.

--

Marcio Merlone

[Jb Piacentino]

Hi,

On 31/05/2012 12:34, nomi...@web.de wrote:

what will happen with the uploaded file in long-term. Will it be deleted after downloading from the recipient, will it be deleted after a time period, can the user delete it or will the file remain forever on the server?

The Thunderbird team has worked with the service provider to ensure that the file remain available in the online storage space until the user specifically deletes them. This can be done through the providers' own file management tool, usually through a web console.

[Gervase Markham]

On 31/05/12 15:23, Jb Piacentino wrote:
> The Thunderbird team has worked with the service provider to ensure that
> the file remain available in the online storage space until the user
> specifically deletes them. This can be done through the providers' own
> file management tool, usually through a web console.

Does Thunderbird keep track of the uploaded files, their paths,
modification dates and hashes, such that if I resend a file to someone
else a few days later, it doesn't need to upload another copy?

If not, should I file an enhancement bug? :-)

Gerv
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[David Bienvenu]

On 5/31/2012 7:40 AM, Gervase Markham wrote:
> On 31/05/12 15:23, Jb Piacentino wrote:
>> The Thunderbird team has worked with the service provider to ensure that
>> the file remain available in the online storage space until the user
>> specifically deletes them. This can be done through the providers' own
>> file management tool, usually through a web console.
> Does Thunderbird keep track of the uploaded files, their paths,
> modification dates and hashes, such that if I resend a file to someone
> else a few days later, it doesn't need to upload another copy?

No, but the service providers have a UI to keep track of all this stuff.

- David

[Jb Piacentino]

And yes, you should file a bug for that !!! ;-)

[Gervase Markham]

On 31/05/12 15:44, Jb Piacentino wrote:
> And yes, you should file a bug for that !!! ;-)

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=760116

(If someone could put it in the correct component, that would be great.)

Gerv

[Archaeopteryx]

> It would also be nice to have good documentation and details on how it
> works and what to do in order to help sysadmins to deploy their own
> storage service enterprise-wide.
>
>
> --

> *Marcio Merlone*

See https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Thunderbird/Filelink_Providers for
further details.

Archaeopteryx