this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2024
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K9 isn't going anywhere. It's still K9, just rebranded and improved.
Its just a name changing
Nope. They initially added some data scraping parts, and apparently still use some form of telemetry without proper disclosure.
What telemetry is enabled? Is there a way to disable it?
This hasn't been proven in any way. Original op in link states it could be discovery for email domains.
See https://lemmy.world/comment/13252949 I haven't tested it myself though
What they're saying there is that when trying to auto detect the server configurations, there are unexpected connections to cloudfare IPs, which didn't usually happen with K9. Who posted the concern associated this to telemetry, but the answers are pointing a different direction. But at this point it just guesses, :(
I guess some more formal traffic inspection needs to happen to understand if truly there's unexpected traffic, where it is directed to, and hopefully infer somehow its purpose. The guesses about what's happening suggest it's just about the auto connection, but again, just guesses.
I explored the configurations, and I didn't find anything about telemetry, and so neither how to disable it. K9 does not have an about:config advanced configuration like desktop Thunderbird does, so if there's truly telemetry or some other sort of information leakage, then after proving it, perhaps developers realize they can do better. But so far nothing really proving telemetry or information leakage.
Are there any updates on this?
Not sure what updates you are expecting to happen.
I'm not aware of any effort trying to identify the traffic going in and out on Thunderbird under android. The guesses from the one reporting about what happens when configuring a new email account is of no use since it's easily associated to Thunderbird looking for ways to easy automation on new accounts settings.
Unless there's a throughout analysis of the traffic, I'm not aware of anything to be expected. You can try reaching the one reporting his concern, and ask if he has looked into how to report an actual issue/bug to Thunderbird, or if someone else has done it
Facts.
FYI this is from 2022 but is relevant because Thunderbird (and K9 v8) just landed in F-Droid (and other android package managers I guess but I haven't checked).
The process of importing from K9 Mail worked without issue for me. There is also the option to import from desktop using a QR scanner (or some kind of scanner, again I didn't go down that rabbit hole).
I was surprised when in update menu I saw Thunderbird. Thought I accidentally downloaded it
Same, oddly enough the app name and icon didn't change for me. Still K-9 in app settings too.
How did the K9 project never talked about this? Its public since 2 years or so that Thunderbird announced they are working on rebranding K9 as Thunderbird.
I'm not sure, if I'm misunderstanding, but the K9 devs definitely talked about it: https://k9mail.app/2022/06/13/K-9-Mail-and-Thunderbird
Edit: My bad English. I tried to rephrase this reply.
But the blog post is 2 years old and not part of the application. Since then new users started using the app. Most people don't read blog posts, if nothing big changes. Was there never a popup message, in example after a regular update, to inform about upcoming huge changes? So that people do not get surprised. The app description should have this information very clear and prominently on the top. No current user should be in a position that the app changes like this.
Ah, yeah, I don't think there was anything in the app. I guess, they could've mentioned it in the changelog, which gets shown in the app by default after an update.
But yeah, I think we'll have to excuse a bit of a bumpy ride here. I know, it says "Mozilla" on there now, but to my knowledge, it's still just the one core dev...
In F-Droid (not sure about Play or other app stores) K9 v8.0 (and above I guess) is now listed as Thunderbird Beta for Testers. I and possibly others thought that the K9 version of the app would keep it's branding all the way through, including it's listing name or title in various app stores. Perhaps it wont or perhaps it's a listing error. We'll see.
Its an f-droid metadata issue that the team is already aware of https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/issues/8478
Yeah, I thought so, too, but I got that from here on Lemmy, so maybe we both read the same misinformed comment.
I think, it's cool, though, that the official Thunderbird app can be published on F-Droid.
Just FYI I installed the apk from the github repo (not the google play version) via Obtainium a few days ago and it tried to make a connection to 2 cloudflare IPs during setup of my account. Without prior consent or any mention. So just be aware that there is still some form of telemetry or unwanted connections happening, even though they removed the telemetry flowing to Mozilla's own telemetry endpoint. K-9 had zero of this, it just spoke with your mail servers and that was it. So be careful and block outgoing app connections by default. I did not analyze the data being sent, just that there were those 2 unwanted connectiins happening.
Isn't this part of the auto configuration stuff? Basically there's a standard where you can add some DNS records to your domain and/or a standard file on your website so e-mail clients can automatically prepopulate all the email settings so you only need to worry about entering your email and password.
That might be it, Thunderbird works really well with auto configuration of domains that it doesn't know but has DNS entries.
Did you get any mismatched IDs from Obtainium? Think I have to reinstall.
I think it's weird that they insisted all along that K-9 would remain its own branded version of the joint app. Yet according to f-droid, my newly updated K-9 (same app I've used for a decade and a half) is now one of two "Thunderbird for beta testers" listed...
It's still K-9 in my local app menu, the icon is the same, but I guess the Thunderbird project are sort of working out how to manage two differently branded versions of the same app?
Apparently it's a metadata bug, K9 shouldn't be listed as Thunderbird. See comments ITT.
Yeah, took me by surprise to see thunderbird on my phone. I remember talks about K9 planning to join the Thunderbird project and got excited, but completely forgot about it until I saw it on my phone.
Why post an article from 2022? Did something happen lately about K9/Thunderbird?
Thunderbird is finally out of beta so you can get it through the play store or F-Droid. K-9 itself was also updated so it's now basically a K-9 branded version of Thunderbird.
Idk about other sources, but I get my apk directly from GitHub via Obtainium, and my app recently changed from K-9 Mail to Thunderbird. Icon, app name, and app theming changed. This has been in the works for a while but seems like they're officially switched the apk.
Just a note that it's now also available on F-Droid
Will I be able to sync my Thunderbird accounts with K-9 Mail?
Yes. We plan to offer Firefox Sync as one option to allow you to securely sync accounts between Thunderbird and K-9 Mail. We expect this feature to be implemented in the summer of 2023.
So is this sync functionality already available? (Edit: Citation corrected)
I'm not seeing it in my just-upgraded "Thunderbird Beta for Testers".
Its been in testing for a bit. It got bumped from the last major desktop Thunderbird release and since Thunderbird releases used to be synced to firefox ESR releases its been a slow turnaround to get their schedule moving faster.
Not yet. Anyway OP shouldn't have posted an article from 2022.
So in confused. Do I need to install thunderbird or...?
Come to iOS 😍
What is the deal with this anyway? Why has this not happened yet?
Mozilla is non-profit. I wish they could sell it as a one-time or something as I dont mind supporting them if they're doing useful capitalistic things like that. Very few actually private mail client apps for iOS. I only know of two and Canary is not one of them
Speaking as a Canary user, what am I missing?
Which clients do you recommend for IOS?
I've got my eye on Airmail Business, only one that doesnt collect data besides Preside
Define “actually private” for me.
K-9 is probably an Android only client? They'd have to either find an open source iOS app to build on, or build a new one from scratch.
Rip.