Author Topic: Aqua mail reveals IP address to the receiver  (Read 4755 times)

downloaderfan

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Aqua mail reveals IP address to the receiver
« on: May 18, 2017, 01:15:44 pm »
Ok, I knew for a long while that when I'm using gmail from browser, gmail strips the IP address & the receiver isn't able to view my IP address. I thought the same would apply if I'm using gmail via Aqua Mail. Apparently I was wrong and a message I sent to myself using Aqua Mail did reveal my IP address when I clicked on 'Show original' inside a message. I'm not too much of a technical person to know the technicalities of email, but how do I prevent IP address leak when sending email via aqua mail?

Plz don't tell me I need to turn on VPN/Proxy every time I need to send an email via Aqua Mail, are there some settings changes I make inside Aqua Mail to prevent IP address leak once & for all?

StR

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Re: Aqua mail reveals IP address to the receiver
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2017, 03:33:08 pm »
You will have this with any e-mail client (any Android app or desktop program, such as Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.). It is not done by the e-mail client, but rather by the SMTP server, Gmail's in this case.
And it is not only Gmail that retains the IP client: this is a common behavior for all mail providers.
 It is only with a private servers where you can tweak the server configuration (and if you know how to do that, as it is not an obvious configuration option), that you'd be able to masquerade the IP address of the e-mail client.

So, if you want to conceal your IP address, your choice is ... well, you already know.  ;)

downloaderfan

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Re: Aqua mail reveals IP address to the receiver
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2017, 01:23:56 pm »
Only if AquaMail had a built in socks proxy option so that I could configure it once then forget about it...Manually turning VPN On before sending an email is not only more work...but as a human, I can also forget doing so at some point......But I guess I have no other choice at this point  :'(

mikeone

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Re: Aqua mail reveals IP address to the receiver
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2017, 01:32:44 pm »
Only if AquaMail had a built in socks proxy option so that I could configure it once then forget about it...Manually turning VPN On before sending an email is not only more work...but as a human, I can also forget doing so at some point......But I guess I have no other choice at this point  :'(
AquaMail is working as a client and sends messages through the native (SMTP) server - your own server or the server of your (web) mail provider. Therefore this have to be done by the server.

downloaderfan

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Re: Aqua mail reveals IP address to the receiver
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2017, 03:30:39 pm »
Quote
From a user point of view, what do you fear if you send your server IP ? What's the risk?

Simple. I don't want every random person out there who I communicate with to know my location to the city level. They might even call my ISP, pretend to be the law and find out my actual address. And yes, things like these do happen. There is way too much risk in revealing your IP address to anyone out there and I'm not taking it. I understand by not using a VPN all the time, I'm giving out my IP to big companies like google & Microsoft...but at least they are bound by some privacy laws & why would they bother looking at a random username's IP address? A person I'm directly communicating with could have many 'legitimate reasons' to find my location.

Kostya Vasilyev

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Re: Aqua mail reveals IP address to the receiver
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2017, 10:06:47 pm »
Yes, the SMTP servers that a message is going to pass through are going to add "Received" headers showing how the message was handed off (from the app to your outgoing SMTP server -> to the recipient's MX server, at least those two).

This is a standard part of how SMTP severs behave, and I don't believe we have a way to suppress this.

( kudos to Google for the "special case" when using their web mail )
Creating debug logs for diagnostics: https://www.aqua-mail.com/troubleshooting/

The official FAQ: https://www.aqua-mail.com/faq/

Лог-файлы для диагностики: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/troubleshooting/

Вопросы и ответы: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/faq/

downloaderfan

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Re: Aqua mail reveals IP address to the receiver
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2017, 02:38:51 am »
It's sad to see that exposing my location by default is hard coded into the way email works. (Except the web mail case) Anyway, thanks for your replies everyone, appreciate that.  :)

StR

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Re: Aqua mail reveals IP address to the receiver
« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2017, 04:05:08 am »
It is there for a good reason: it allows tracking the source of scam/spam messages (as well as troubleshoot when something doesn't work properly).
That, in turn, helps spam filters identifying (and tagging) messages as SPAM.

downloaderfan

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Re: Aqua mail reveals IP address to the receiver
« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2017, 01:03:36 pm »
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it allows tracking the source of scam/spam messages.

1) If IP address is going to be used for spam filtering, then the server should be able to do it without revealing the IP to the receiver, just like the web version of gmail(although I do understand that such a thing is not possible when using Aqua Mail or any other 3rd party email client), not that spam is that big of a problem as it used to be.
2) Pretty sure modern spammers would use something like Tor to hide their originating location, so revealing IP address would become pointless in catching them. In the end, it's just less tech savvy users like me who unknowingly send our location to strangers on the internet.
3) If it's a scam, then a normal citizen can only report such an incident to authorities & then the authorities can use their special ways to find the source. What is a normal user like me going to do with the location of a scammer? Confront him & try to solve the problem personally? As if that won't have any repercussions. Again making IP revelation pointless.
Times have changed, but email tech has remained the same :(
There is a reason why modern services like whatsapp don't reveal the IP address to the receiver, because doing so is a breach of privacy.

StR

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Re: Aqua mail reveals IP address to the receiver
« Reply #9 on: May 20, 2017, 05:07:34 pm »
This is off-topic for this forum, so this is my last response to this issue.

Spam is a still a big problem. If you would ask, I'll oblige and dump GBs of SPAM that us collected on one of the servers monthly. You don't see it with your account because of the effective spam filters that (beside other techniques) use IP addresses of senders and mail relays as a part of the strategy.

SMTP protocol is more than 20-years old (albeit somewhat updated in the mean time). And yes it is imperfect (and spammers are "exploiting" the weaknesses, and we have to rely on what's available to fight against spam and other abuse.)
If you want to have Whatsup functionality, use Whatsup.
If you want to use e-mail, you are bound to what the current standard protocols are.

Kostya Vasilyev

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Re: Aqua mail reveals IP address to the receiver
« Reply #10 on: May 21, 2017, 02:28:19 pm »
Re: WhatsApp -- it must be nice when you control the content too (I'm thinking the various "auto-fit not working" and "linked images not showing" issues).

Re: IP address in Received:

This is a nice explanation:

http://stackoverflow.com/a/17154161/2342806
Creating debug logs for diagnostics: https://www.aqua-mail.com/troubleshooting/

The official FAQ: https://www.aqua-mail.com/faq/

Лог-файлы для диагностики: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/troubleshooting/

Вопросы и ответы: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/faq/