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EFF Warns That Email Privacy Is In Jeopardy
MojoKid writes with this excerpt from HotHardware:
"According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a
dangerous legal precedent has just been set that can potentially unravel existing federal privacy protections for e-mail and Internet usage. The alert from the EFF is not just to sound a general warning, but it also takes the form of an Amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief, filed with the federal 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, asking for the court's legal finding to be overturned... The findings of this case
could become the foundation of a legal precedent upon which other similar cases can subsequently be based. If that were to be the case, then the unauthorized retrieving of e-mails from an e-mail server would not be considered a violation of the federal Wiretap Act, which
will then open the door for government-sponsored snooping."
Not to be flippant, but does anyone really believe there is any privacy anymore with simple, unencrypted email? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the EFF is on the case. But it does seem to me that any expectation of privacy in any communication medium here in the USA went out the window with the news of the NSA telco backdoors. Our government is obsessed with spying on everyone, and they have demonstrated quite thoroughly they don't care about the rules at all.
Caveat Utilitor
Even if breaking in houses is illegal, I still have a lock on my door. Why? Because some people don't care about the law.
Even if snooping on e-mail is illegal, you still need to encrypt your mails. Why? Because some governments don't care about the law.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
IANAL, but as I understand it, this does not just apply to the government. Anyone can snoop without legal liability.
... to maintain your own mail server.
Install Thunderbird, GnuPG and the EnigMail extension.
Then let RIAA defend you, (ducks and covers ).
Working in the health care field as an IT admin exposes me to lots of HIPAA crap. One thing you learn on day one is that EMAIL IS NOT SECURE. And if it is not secure then considered public. I have no expectation that email is private UNLESS IT IS SECURE. This is why emailing of patient data is forbidden. It would sure make life easier if it were.
Conservative, mod down for violating
You can use BetterMail for a secure connection to Gmail, but Google still has all your messages and they're unencrypted when they go out from there. In this case store and forward is not your friend.
You could use a simple encryption tool like this one. It's a little less difficult than a system that requires a key exchange but it's also less secure. And there's still a decryption process. Copy, paste, type pass phrase, read.
If there's something that's easy to implement and lets you exchange encrypted messages with other email clients that don't support your encryption scheme, then I don't know about it. Far as I know you have to make a decision to encrypt or not every time you send a message. When you're sending to a compatible client you can at least encrypt the body of the message, but as far as I'm aware, that's the state of the art.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Hi Alice,
just tell Bob he's not getting any until he learns about encryption.
I have discussed this issue with some friends who seem to believe that Obama will reverse the current warrantless surveillance practices. If history is to serve as a guide, it seems clear that he will not. I am convinced that contacting our legislators and voting for Democrats are two of the least effective means of protecting our rights. Indeed, the most effective way of protecting our rights is by asserting them. We as Americans have the responsibility of actively protecting our rights, rather than depending on the ineptitude and conflicted interests of our elected officials. This is why I propose not only opportunistic encryption, but also what I call gratuitous encryption. This means the ubiquitous use and advocacy of PGP, SSH, SSL, VPNs, tor, full disk encryption, and every other tool we have at our disposal.
Check out this page for ways to assert your rights.
Time to revive the good 'ole FIDO mail system and BBS technology. This is not such a bad thing though as it is NOT the internet - it's the phone lines. Hmm .... Oh well, so much for freedom. It was nice while it existed.
Still, one can PGP that style of mail easily and it is by today's standards pretty secure in it's travels to and from. The phone company is involved though so look out. Short of floating our own satellites and running the entire thing end to end, there is NO WAY ANYTHING WE DO from this point on is beyond scrutiny or observation, "we" being those that still believe in the Constitution, Bill Of Rights, etc. and they that watch and record are those we think we'd like to avoid.
I work a FL county GIS and in 1998, our aerial maps were good enough that we zoomed down to look in the back of a co-worker's pickup truck and could easily read "Budweiser" on the case of beer in the truck bed. We were told that the military had these same maps but in 4 or 5 stages better resolution! THAT was 10 years ago - now it's LIVE.
I ran a multi-line BBS for 15 years and hubbed mail for FIDO most of that time. The mail "bags" came in, got sorted and went back out. It was true store and forward technology and with today's packer and encryption options, I believe that FIDO could once again offer relatively secure email. It would take a network though and with each added "node" would come potential trouble. Who's to say that hub in New Hampshire is not the FBI? With the right email client software, the playing field could be vastly leveled - are you listening Santos's?? End to end PGP enabled mail times the quantity factor would be REALLYPGP and the hardware that would have to be dedicated to breaking all that mail would be ridiculous. All this could run on old time BBS systems. Imagine this - NO SPAM (yet).
Rx --> Doctor Smith
You do realise that it's a matter of time before mandatory backdoor to all encrypted traffic is required by law.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Not to be flippant, but does anyone really believe there is any privacy anymore with simple, unencrypted email?
Does anyone really believe there is any privacy anymore with ANYTHING? Technology, government and law enforcement practices, and the general public indifference are all converging to insure that nothing is hidden. Rant and rave, fight the good fight, but those of us who give a shit are becoming increasingly rare. It's an out of control freight train that can't be stopped -- delayed maybe, diverted to do less damage perhaps, but unstoppable.
The only thing you can do is try to leave as small a footprint as possible. I know damn well that if someone really wanted to find me, or know my business, they could do so. I long ago abandoned any notion of being able to prevent any and all personal, corporate, or governmental snooping. All I can do is use some common sense, do nothing to call attention to myself, and try to make it as difficult as possible so as to not be worth the effort for all but those who are truly determined. And try to avoid doing the things that would make those determined folks want to find me.
Unfortunately, the list of those things gets longer everyday, and all those peculiar interests and eccentric foibles I used to take pride in may now well brand me as "suspicious" and worthy of further scrutiny.
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
If selling e-mail off of servers is not wiretapping, then its not wiretapping if the e-mail being sold belongs to the government, GOP, or whomever. Even if that e-mail is encrypted, the traffic analysis data is quite valuable. Law enforcement is way behind the game in link analysis. That is: who phones, or e-mails who, when and how often. That data has been gold to marketing departments for years. Undoubtedly, it will be valuable to political competitors, foreign intelligence agencies and others.
It sounds like the door is wide open for a whole new business plan. The "3) ????" just before "4) Profit!" has now been solved.
Have gnu, will travel.