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Yesterday, I finally got my Nokia E7. Unfortunately, I have been unable to use it for email, as Big Brother seems to be watching my messages.

My first frown occurred when I began to set up an email account and the mail client stated, “During the activation process, your mail address, along with technical information, such as phone ID (sic), may be sent to Nokia”. Such information sharing seems unnecessary, but there was no way to deny it, and my email address is public anyhow.

What really got my hair to stand on its end was the fact that even though the mail client asks the user which MSA (outgoing mail server) to use, that information seems to be disregarded. The test messages I sent to myself carried Received: lines such as the following:

Received: from smtp1.suw.hosting-ops.com (smtp1.suw.hosting-ops.com [64.88.160.142])
	by mailfront3.nebula.fi (Postfix) with ESMTP id B687CD2020E
	for <thor.kottelin@turvasana.com>; Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:56:13 +0200 (EET)
Received: from oz.com (suwsmnlb01.hosting.ops [192.168.5.6])
	by smtp1.suw.hosting-ops.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id p1IMuUPP018025
	for <thor.kottelin@turvasana.com>; Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:56:31 -0500

Those lines show that the recipient’s server receives the messages from a host by the name of smtp1.suw.hosting-ops.com instead of through the local servers I configure. Of course, this also raises the question what smtp1.suw.hosting-ops.com is. If I try to find a website in the hosting-ops.com domain, I end up at at a GoDaddy “Want to buy this domain?” page. Whois reveals that the domain hosting-ops.com is registered to a Vernon Walker in the United States. Mr Walker uses a yahoo.com email address for his administrative contact information. All this is far from encouraging.

To sum it up, I expect the email client on my top-of-the-line Nokia business smartphone to send mail through the local server I have configured, but instead, my messages are being routed through an obscure server in a domain registered to a private person based in the United States. I would love to hear Nokia’s explanation for this.

What do you think? Please post your comments!