The IPKat frequently receives (and indeed, it seems, sends) emails that contain pictures. As a user of Microsoft Outlook, the IPKat generally finds when he opens his emails that the pictures are not actually displayed. Instead, there's a little box that contains the following text:"Right-click here to download pictures. To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of this picture from the internet".
That seems very nice but what, the IPKat wants to know, does this have to do with privacy? If anything invades the recipient's privacy, it's the arrival of an unsolicited email as such, not the appearance of a picture. And how does the fact that the picture is not automatically downloaded protect his privacy? It's not as if the downloading of the picture enables the sender to see the recipient, or anything like that, is it? Or is this a proposition of US law that is meaningful on one side of the Atlantic but a little perplexing on the other?Answers, please, by comment below or by email here.
