If you have ever seen a message where you email application does not download the images believe me it’s for your own protection. Viruses and malicious code can hide in emails as viruses, also when you get emails with images that download from a server and this a traceable action and can validate your email address with SPAMers.

Like everything on the Internet deciding which emails to download images from is a matter of deciding who you trust. If you get an email from the PTA at your kids school or your favorite shoe designer than these are probably safe to download images from, if you get emails from a random source your unsure of than not so much (in fact why are you opening that email in the first place?). The biggest reason to decide on a case by case basis is that if SPAM ends up in your in box you don’t want to download the images from it by accident.

Selecting your settings for this feature varies from application to application as well as from email provider to email provider. Most email applications and online providers have good help on this topic.