The problem with web-based email
While it sure is convenient to be able to pull out a laptop and go to yahoo.com to check your email even when you’re out of town, it presents an awful security risk, as I hinted in a post earlier today.
I’ll take my good old POP3 client anytime. I don’t have to worry about someone getting into my email account and deleting a bunch of stuff or sending a ton of objectionable stuff to twenty thousand people and having my name on the “From:” line.
I’ve seen several different web-based email programs and they all have “features” I can’t stand. The one that comes to mind right off the top of my head is called Vdeck. It will let you create folders and put messages into them, but you’ll grow old and die before you find a way to get the messages back OUT of that folder. Also, if you want to view the full headers on an email then you’d better have access to the program’s data files and a whole lot of patience, because the program doesn’t hand out that information to anybody!
My biggest complaint with web mail however, is the security issue. Yeah, you can change your password every month, or week, or day if you want, but all you have to do is access your email from a public computer (internet cafe, library, school, whatever) and walk away without logging off and dumping the machine’s cache and cookies and then you’ve just given the next person to use that machine Carte Blanche to do what they will with your email.
Like I said, I’ll take my good old POP3 client anytime.
Technorati Tags: webmail, web+based+email, security
