jfourlc I found this Stack Exchange article: https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/198653/security-of-email-smtp-pop-passwords.
I’m no expert, but personally, I don’t know of any major email providers that use this (or have ever used it). So I’d assume it was probably never widely adopted, and certainly not today, since most email providers now use TLS by default, or even exclusively.
With the article above in mind, here’s something to consider:
Even if your provider does use TLS, I would question why they are still relying on this feature, as it could indicate a significant amount of technical debt in their software stack. 😉
But again, that’s just a thought. It might be worth asking the provider what exact method they are using, why they are using it, and what advantages they see in it.