POP3 password in plaintext?

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/29/londoners-wi-fi-security-herod-clause

says that POP3 passwords are sometimes transmitted in plain text.

Is plaintext transmission of passwords inherent in POP3
or is it optional?

Is there something we can and should do
to encourage users to stop the plaintext transmission of their
POP3 passwords?

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org
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