Protecting only ONE email acct in Thunderbird

[phkhgh]

I've read a few suggestions & posted on Mozilla's forum & KB on how to protect email in only ONE acct in Thunderbird. No suggestions. So far, most methods aren't good if other users have administrative privileges, etc, or aren't secure at all, or are bit of a pain.

I'm not worried about the CIA - just keeping personal medical correspondence, etc., out of view. Most messages won't be stored in the email client for long.

Could use an encryption app (like TrueCrypt), but never used one. Read the manual - seems like a bit of trouble for this. How / where is the key stored - that is, unless you want to type it in every time?

Suppose I could just not d/l the msgs for the private acct into T-bird, and only access the acct by webmail, entering (but not storing on PC) the password manually. Then delete msgs off the server.

Maybe there are easier / more practical solutions?

Thanks!

[classicsoftware]

Please explain what you are trying to do, in detail. Protect what? From who?
Why?

[phkhgh]

Protect what? From who?
Why?
Protect from whom...:D
Well, just keep other users of the computer reading email from that particular acct, accidentally or on purpose.

If & when msgs are available for the "protected" acct from the mail server (AT&T), I don't want other users seeing certain medical correspondence.

Unless I set up an entirely different email client installation (another pain) to d/l msgs for that acct, I need some way to protect / hide / encrypt the msgs only in that acct - assuming I get them via email client.

I could keep others from accessing the msgs via webmail by having a separate server password for the protected acct, but if I use an email client to d/l them, I'd need a way to hide them from others. Especially before I read them & have a chance to delete them.

Thanks again.

[classicsoftware]

Assuming you have Windows XP, you can place the mail folders in your My Documents folder. Then the XP login password would be as effective as a web-mail password. Who open is the access to the PC. You could have the messages encrypted at both ends. PGP (http://na.pgpstore.com/product.aspx?sku=3118545&CMP=KNC-Google&HBX_PK=111+pro&HBX_OU=50) comes to mind. Some freeware versions found here (http://www.pgpi.org/products/pgp/versions/freeware/).

[phkhgh]

I do have XP Home.

We use the same user acct for XP. If I create other user acct(s), and then password protect my acct, it will create... well, let's say something might hit the fan.

But thanks for the idea. If it was just kids involved, your idea would be OK.

Any other thoughts from anyone?

[classicsoftware]

You have several choices:

1) Install the mail client in the Administrator account. Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL at the Welcome screen and you should get the login window. Enter Administrator as the User Name and whatever the admin password is for the password.

2) Use strictly a web-mail account for these communications.

3) Use encryption for these e-mails.

The problem really is you are trying to keep some information private, but you are in a situation where the privacy itself would be a problem. You need to solve this problem.

[Budfred]

While I am dubious about the whole story, I believe you can use Thunderbird Portable on a flash drive to download and store those messages... After you download your email, you would simply remove the flash drive and put it in your pocket... You would configure the Thunderbird Portable on the flash to only download that account so that it doesn't effect any of your other accounts and you would be sure not to put that account in your main Thunderbird install...

[phkhgh]

Thank you C.S.
You have several choices:

Re: 1) Install the mail client...
I imagine this would probably be sufficient for the situation - maybe. But for others reading this, especially w/ Thunderbird, others could go to where the email msgs are stored (esp if still in the default profile location), and read most of the messages in text. Other than that...

Re: 2) Use strictly a web-mail account...
Yes, a thought I had. I can have a separate password for the acct, and delete msgs as needed from the mail server.

Re: 3) Use encryption for these e-mails.
Possibility. I need an easy way to get there & maintain it. I'm not exactly trying to protect launch code sequences from Moscow here.:)

I was also wondering about a simple way to encrypt the folder in T-bird where the msgs for this acct are stored. That would require me unencrypting them each time I need to read.

you are in a situation where the privacy itself would be a problem. You need to solve this problem.
Uh, huh. Now we're getting somewhere. How much do you charge by the hour?

Thanks Budfred, for the poke & the suggestion.
Dubious, huh? The "story" is indubitable. I'm dealing w/ doctors regarding a relative, for whom I'm responsible, who's undergoing psychiatric treatment.

[Budfred]

Thanks Budfred, for the poke & the suggestion.
Dubious, huh? The "story" is indubitable. I'm dealing w/ doctors regarding a relative, for whom I'm responsible, who's undergoing psychiatric treatment.

If you had said that upfront, it would have been far less dubious... I use Thunderbird Portable on my work laptop when I am away from home because I can't access my mail otherwise... However, it doesn't seem to leave any trace of those emails on the computer, so it should serve your purposes quite well...

[phkhgh]

Well, thanks again Budfred.

I'd never considered T-Bird portable for this or any other reason, so good to know for future reference.

To be fair, how many people actually want to reveal family medical info on an open forum like this?

[Budfred]

I don't know that anyone is asking you to reveal family medical info... I think just a little bit of info to indicate that there is a legitimate reason is sufficient... We get a fair number of kids and others asking for ways to hide things that are more to get around parents or bosses than to protect info that they have a right to protect... Of course, responding to you at all allows those people to search for the answers and find them, but they tend not to do that... And of course, you could be making up any story you tell and we have no way to confirm it, so we still take a risk of doing harm by sharing ideas with you... In this case, I don't see that much harm that could be done, so I took that risk...

As far as you situation, we don't know who you are, where you are, who you are talking about and so on... I think your info is safe... :)