# Disable email summary and reply by email for private categories only
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 9, 2015, 11:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056 "2015-09-09T11:00:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@karussell](https://meta.discourse.org/u/karussell)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2015, 11:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056/1 "2015-09-09T11:00:07Z")
We would like to discuss company internal topics in private categories in our discourse setup, and due to https it would securely work IF we completely disable email stuff.
But as we develop and discuss open source software we are also having public facing discussion and we would need a category specific option to completely disable sending emails (+replying by email too).
Is this currently missing and we would need a separate discourse installation or did I get lost again in the massive amount of nice discourse settings đ ?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2015, 11:23am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056/2 "2015-09-09T11:23:24Z")
Wait, what? Why do you need to disable email âbecause httpsâ? I am not following this at all.
We have tons of private discussion in private categories.
Can you provide a specific, real world example of what you are talking about?
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### Author:  [@karussell](https://meta.discourse.org/u/karussell)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2015, 11:56am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056/3 "2015-09-09T11:56:17Z")
Sorry, for being unclear here. When I have âemail digestâ enabled this means the messages are send out clear text. Also reply by email means clear text.
So, if we disable email completely and providing our discourse installation through HTTPS, this would be secure.
But, from what I understand, I cannot disable sending/receiving emails for one category only, is this correct?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2015, 12:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056/4 "2015-09-09T12:00:05Z")
Users will only get emails containing posts they have permission to seeâŚ
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### Author:  [@karussell](https://meta.discourse.org/u/karussell)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2015, 12:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056/5 "2015-09-09T12:27:14Z")
Hmmh, I do not mean that. Okay, let me try again đ
I want to discuss with my colleagues e.g. in the âStaffâ category about new projects and clients, the future and more. This is confidential and we can use encrypted emails but using discourse over HTTPS would also be fine.
**But** now when someone is not online at discourse he gets an email digest, which is, due to the nature of emails, clear text and would leak information to the email provider and all in-between like the provider/hoster, which we do not want.
So, disabling email communication (ingoing and outgoing) for single categories would be easy and help us a lot.
Another possibility would be to avoid sending the content in the email for that category and just provide links to the HTTPS protected discourse. Still âreply by emailâ needs to be configurable by category too to disallow sending emails for âconfidentialâ categories.
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2015, 11:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056/6 "2015-09-09T23:35:19Z")
Note that Discourse will attempt to use encrypted email sessions (STARTTLS) whenever possible.
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### Author:  [@karussell](https://meta.discourse.org/u/karussell)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2015, 7:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056/7 "2015-09-10T07:43:00Z")
It still does not work if you cannot trust your provider.
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 12:21am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056/8 "2018-11-06T00:21:03Z")
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 12:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056/9 "2018-11-06T00:30:22Z")
> [@karussell](#):
>
> **But** now when someone is not online at discourse he gets an email digest, which is, due to the nature of emails, clear text and would leak information to the email provider and all in-between like the provider/hoster, which we do not want.
There is now a private email mode setting which prevents any topic information from leaking out in emails.
> ### private email
>
> Donât include content from posts or topics in emails for extra privacy.
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### Author:  [@karussell](https://meta.discourse.org/u/karussell)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2018, 8:11am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056/10 "2018-11-06T08:11:19Z")
Wow, thanks a lot for solving a this oldish issue! Much appreciated that you took the time to implement this and notify us here đ !
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2018, 8:11am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-email-summary-and-reply-by-email-for-private-categories-only/33056/11 "2018-12-06T08:11:22Z")
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