Using Sparrow and Dropbox to add attachment to Shortmail

[1:19s] The latest update to Sparrow email client version 1.5 on Mac OS X adds the option to use Dropbox for email attachments. Shortmail is a text only email account for emails of less than 500 characters. Using all there together makes adding 'attachment' links to Shortmail emails very easy to do. Sparrow can also do the same thing with CloudApp and Shortmail.

Links in Shortmail emails work within the Shortmail iPhone app.

Shortmail email message with Dropbox link

...tapping the link shows the image within Shortmail app

One thing to be aware of with the link created by Shortmail, which is a shortened link of the Dropbox link [see update below], is that this shortened link is not secure. It can potentially be viewed by anyone. Anyone can type in a variation of the final few letters of an http://shml.me/ link and see the result of that 're-created' link. There is a chance that the random 'found' link could be to your image or file. Some people like to play this type of 'link roulette' to see what surprises they might find. So I would not use Shortmail and this technique to send links to images or information that I want to keep secret. (Mind, is anything secret on the web?)

Link Roulette can be played with other very short URL schemes. I first came aware of it with CloudApp and cl.ly links using four characters. CloudApp have a more private http://cl.ly link followed by 20 characters which is now the default link used by them. You can choose to use the shorter 4 character link by default or on an individual basis. Dropbox iOS app can create a http://db.tt link using 8 characters.

Note that Sparrow puts the image in the Public folder within Dropbox but uses a 32 character unique name for the folder in which the attachment is place. So this potential privacy issue is from using Shortmail with Sparrow and Dropbox because Shortmail makes a short link of the Dropbox link. It does not happen when Sparrow and Dropbox is used with another IMAP email account such as Gmail. Now following the Shortmail update nor does it happen with Shortmail!


Update: A few hours after I posted this, Shortmail change how they handle Dropbox Public links. They are no longer shortened, more can be read here:
http://blog.shortmail.com/2011/12/using-sparrow-and-dropbox/