Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft is Trying to Eliminate POP3 and IMAP for E-mail (Attack on Commodity or Standard Protocols)

Video download link | md5sum 926a0af805babd5d56f2959044221e99 Standard E-mail Under Attack Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Microsoft is trying to decommoditise (read: control) E-mail by shutting out people who use standard protocols; how long have we got before E-mail becomes a surveillance-intensive walled garden?

THE war on POSIX (e.g. systemd) and various other things that are stable and have worked for decades (e.g. X Server) is troubling enough on its own; what happens when the network stack comes under attack (e.g. TCP/IP), impacting clients and servers irrespective of the underlying operating system?



Enter E-mail. We previously mentioned how Thunderbird was being ruined by Mozilla and Mozilla played along (passively) with Google's coup against E-mail. Now, as per this post (Gemini link), Microsoft does this too. We've discussed this in IRC (HTML, text, GemText, Gemini) and the video above shares some personal views. Here's the raw but redacted evidence, which is dated 3 days ago:

From Enterprise Services ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆ To Conner, Sean ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆ Date Thu, 22 Sep 2022 19:27:12 +0000 Subject Legacy Email Protocols to be Retired

To All [The Enterprise] Staff,

Please be aware that Microsoft is disabling the use of several legacy protocols related to old methods of retrieving and sending email in the coming weeks.

What does this mean for you? If you are using Outlook as [The Enterprise] provisions it, you do not need to do anything. If you use an alternate email program that relies on POP3, IMAP or SMTP, like native mail programs in iOS and Android, expect your [The Enterprise] email connection for that app to stop functioning when Microsoft chooses to disable these protocols.

What should you do? [The Enterprise] only supports the use of the approved email client Outlook, Outlook 365 available in our [The Enterprise] tenant, or Outlook for iOS and Android. If you are not using Outlook, please switch today. If you require assistance, please contact ⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆⬆.

Instructions for installing Outlook for mobile devices can be found here [Link to internal documentation removed. —Editor].

Thank You,

Enterprise Services


See more in So when did POP and IMAP become a “legacy protocol?” - The Boston Diaries - Captain Napalm (published about 2 days ago).

We'd like to place special emphasis on the phenomenon -- or the term -- "decommoditisation" specifically, for at some later stage we plan to link it to the topic of the Halloween Documents, which we've already reproduced in Gemini (OSI censored the online copy of these, which means there's suppression of such information, erasure of the past on behalf of Microsoft as sponsor).

To be clear, it's not a problem that's limited to Microsoft; it should also be noted that GMail 1) already comes very close to blocking Thunderbird, and other IMAPS clients; 2) it does not support standard IMAPS in any case.

"GMail ignores the existence of Thunderbird," an associate reminds us, "and mainly only works with OAuth-encumbered software." To quote Mozilla: "As of May 30, 2022, Google no longer allows Less secure apps [sic] access for Gmail accounts, thus OAuth is required. If you are using Google supplied app passwords, Thunderbird version 91.8.0 and newer will make that conversion for you. Further, Gmail accounts do not work with Thunderbird 31 and older because they do not support Google's OAuth (implemented in bug 849540)."

Cui bono and who stands to lose the most?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Changing One's Name Won't Change One's Past
People who have earned a bad reputation are not magically "entitled" to reset
People Who Assault Women Are Not Victims of "Distress"
It seems like an American tradition. In a country with almost 50 presidents, not even one was a female.
Adoption of Gemini Protocol Still Growing
Gemini Protocol is being obscured by the media - it doesn't help that Google 'hijacked' the word "Gemini" - but people still manage to find out about it, download a client, and use it
Brett Wilson LLP "Takes it Personal" (Character Assassination, Not Professionalism). Everybody Can See That.
On behalf of violent men
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
Microsoft Repeats the Mistakes Made by the EPO After We Exposed a Major Microsoft/EPO Scandal 10 Years Ago
That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
 
Links 14/07/2025: Chatbots Broken Again, McHire LLM Shows Limits of the Hype
Links for the day
Slashdot Media Turned Linux Journal Into a Slopfarm and Now Slashdot Actively Promotes Anti-Linux Slopfarms
Yes, "no-nonsense" apparently means actual nonsense
Links 14/07/2025: Arresting Photographers, Threats to Revoke US Citizenship Over Criticism
Links for the day
More EPO Leaks on the Way
We hope that Mr. Rowan will actually try to refute what we say and show, not merely point the finger at the messengers
Decommodification is a Corporate Strategy Against Communities
systemd is led by Microsoft and hosted by Microsoft
copyleft.org 'Hijacked' by the People Who Attack the Person Who Created Copyleft
So far there's nothing "tasteless" in copyleft.org, but that can change at any time in the future
Asking People to Take Down Articles and Videos Only Makes These More Popular and "Viral"
If you do something bad, one of the worst things you can possibly do it try to silence those who speak about it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 13, 2025
Two-Thirds Towards FSF Goal, Richard Stallman to Give Talks in Europe
There are 67 left before reaching the target
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: Politicised Tech and "Leaving GitHub"
Links for the day
The Demise of LLMs
We've just checked BetaNews again. They've dropped all the slop and went back to human authors.
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
Links for the day
Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
Links for the day
Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
Links for the day
Turns Out LLMs for Code Don't Save Time and Don't Improve Quality
Neither legal nor useful
The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
This story isn't just about Microsoft. It's also about corruption, there are many women victims, there is abject "abuse of process", and many more scandals to be illuminated in years to come.
Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
Valnet Inc. Dominates Real (Not LLM Slop) GNU/Linux Coverage in 2025
And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
Later this month we'll expose another OSI scandal
EPO Staff Representatives Issue a Warning About Staff's Health and Inadequate Care
Even the EPO's own stakeholders (money sources) are openly protesting against what the EPO became
Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Board Games and Battle Styles
Gemini Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 12, 2025
Plunder at the Second-Largest Institution in Europe
cuts, neglect, health problems, even early deaths
Links 12/07/2025: Political Developments, Attack on Opposition, Climate Actions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: Melodic Musings and Small Web July
Links for the day
Links 12/07/2025: Jail in China for Homoerotica, South Korea Discriminates Against Old Workers
Links for the day
If Only Everything Was Rewritten in Rust, We'd Have No More Security Issues?
Nope.
Links 12/07/2025: Birdwatching and Fake/Misleading Wall Street 'Valuation' Figures
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: How to Avoid Writing, Apps for Android
Links for the day
Using SLAPPs to Cover Up Sexual Abuse and Strangulation
The exact same legal team of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft and Garrett already has a history fighting against "metoo"
EPO Staff Committee on Harassment in the Workplace
slides
Adding the Voice of Writers to UK SLAPP Reform
The journey to repair antiquated (monarchy era) laws will likely be long
EPO Takes More Money From Staff for Speculation (Pensions), Actuarial Study Explains the Impact
"The key change in this year’s Actuarial Study, due to cascading the new “risk appetite” from the financial study, is a significant increase of the total pension contribution rate of 5.7 percentage points, up to a total of 37.8%. This is driven by an unprecedented decrease in the discount rate of 105 bps down to 2.2%."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 11, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 11, 2025