Usability Enhancement of IMAP Agent System with Considering Privacy Preservation Using Docker Container

Today, email is a ubiquitous means of communication, with billions of users worldwide relying on it for personal and professional correspondence. Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) [1] is a widely used email protocol that allows users to view, organize, and synchronize their email across multiple devices while storing messages on the server. An IMAP Agent [2] is a system that connects to a mail server constantly to retrieve mail as soon as it arrives at the destination server. In this paper, we propose a solution for enhancing the usability of the IMAP Agent System while considering users' privacy preservation. The proposed system seamlessly integrates the creation of Docker containers [3] with the deployment of IMAP Agent, all within a user-friendly software application. The Docker images [4] are built locally on the user's device and then securely uploaded to a private registry, ensuring that sensitive information is neither exposed to external entities nor stored insecurely. This approach not only simplifies user interaction with IMAP systems but also enhances privacy and security by leveraging Docker containers' isolated environments, thereby reducing vulnerabilities to attacks and improving usability for commercial applications. Our approach is validated through a series of simulation experiments that demonstrate its effectiveness in safeguarding user information while significantly improving usability.