What personal information does the Outbound Index store? Could the Outbound Index be abused to invade my privacy?
The queries the Outbound Index receives from inbound servers only contain the domain name part of the return address and the IP address of the outbound server. Query information sent to the Outbound Index never contains any part of the email recipient’s address, nor does it ever contain the content of the message. The Outbound Index does not contain information about individuals who send email to each other. If law enforcement or other parties wish to trace information about individuals, they would not bother using the Outbound Index, because nothing about individuals is contained in the Outbound Index. Far more detailed info can easily be obtained by tapping into the recipient and sender ISP mail system directly. The Outbound Index never knows the user name of the person who typed an email message. The Outbound Index DOES receive and store the IP address of the outbound server which is attempting to deliver mail, as do all inbound servers. That information is stamped into the headers
