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Comment by ivanbakel | Hacker News Reader

What I'm most curious about, and what the docs are light on detail about: does this mean Thunderbird complies with remote deletion requests (which IIRC, the Exchange protocol suppports)? I have the impression that Microsoft makes this a requirement for Exchange implementations, which is why third-party devices and apps like Apple's Mail cooperate with those requests.

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That would be Active Sync:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients/exchange-...

Not sure how Mozilla went about the implementation, but I do agree it would be a concern to verify before using.

You can perform the following Exchange ActiveSync tasks:

    Enable and disable Exchange ActiveSync for users

    Set policies such as minimum password length, device locking, and maximum failed password attempts

    Initiate a remote wipe to clear all data from a lost or stolen mobile phone

    Run a variety of reports for viewing or exporting into a variety of formats

    Control which types of mobile devices can synchronize with your organization through device access rules

Some clients perform some of those operations in a sandbox. Eg. Nine for Android let's you choose when you set up an account whether a remote wipe command should just wipe that account's local mailbox, or your whole device.

ActiveSync will forever be reserved for the technology I used to sync email and calendar on my HP Jornada 430 running Windows CE - just like James Bond did!

Do you mean recall? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/recall-an-outlook...

That only works within an organisation, right?

Otherwise you just get an email. I got one recently.

No, Exchange ActiveSync (as the other commenter correctly identified it) really allows an admin to wipe your device - ostensibly of mail, but often of all other data as well.[0]

If your Outlook server disables IMAP & POP3, then the ActiveSync protocol is AFAIK the only way to get in-app emails on your phone. Admins do this so that they can forcibly wipe the device if they "need" to.

0: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients/exchange-...

I was not sure which you meant.

Historical note: There was also MAPI for a long time (and I believe MAPI over HTTP/S)

Still is

This may turn out like those PDF "security" features, i.e. easy to patch out and ignore.

It actually downloads BleachBit and runs it so that even god can't read your emails /s

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