Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: What Country Has the Best Email Privacy Laws?
An anonymous reader writes "Given all that is going on with the ability of the government to go through my email if it is on a third-party server, I was wondering: what countries have the best privacy laws and what are some good hosts to use? I would rather pay a token fee to have secure private email than have members of the government able to read it as soon as it's 180 days old if I keep it at my email provider."
My-own-email-server-istan.
Email is inherently insecure, since it is transmitted in clear text and stored in multiple hops between destination and recipient, where its contents may be intercepted, altered, copied, stored, etc.. If you're relying on the law to keep your email private, you've already lost. Use digital signatures for authenticity and integrity, and strong encryption for confidentiality. At that point, you really don't need the law's help to keep your emails private.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Even if you host your own email server or use a server in a country with great privacy laws, every email you send or receive is stored on two servers, each with your name (email address) attached to it. Unless everyone you email has the same security policy as you, your messages are little more secure than they would be if you used any other email server.
If this is really worried about this...Why are you storing any email on a 3rd party server? As new email arrives, save it to your local computer, removing it from the inbox. No email is then left to become 180 days old. Nothing to worry about. Actually that is not true since you most likely will be worrying about something else then too, but...
Given I can't be bothered to take the most basic steps to gain a little privacy for my letters, like using envelopes, writing everything on postcards that let everybody in the postal industry in contact with my mail read it, what are the best couriers for me to send my letters with?
Honestly, I think some articles are just deliberate trolls for the computer-security folks on Slashdot.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Redact everything yourself. Problem solved. Stick it to those government snoops!
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
(Score:-1)
This is what I get for pointing out that our 'anonymous' submitter here is a company troll grasping for page hits.
So one more time for posterity, privacy on the internet, and any expectation thereof is pure mental masturbation.
This site is being compromised by too many sockpuppets and zombies. It used to be fun when was a small group of friends, but not any more. Maybe it's best to just stay away from the front page.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Many European nations nominally have better privacy laws, but they have lots of exceptions for national security, police enforcement, and privacy law enforcement, as well as other loopholes.
But you're likely also no better off storing it on your local disk; for your government or your ISP, accessing data on your disk is likely no more complicated than pushing a button.
If you want your E-mail to be private, encrypt it, whether it's on a local disk or a server, and even then, there's a good chance others can intercept the key and read it anyway.
Because we all know that all govenments can be trusted to respect such laws when their own interests are at stake.
If you have secrets that you must protect against goverments why are leaving them (unencrypted, evidently) on third party servers? And why are you discussing that fact on a public forum?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Are you sure you're always communicating with people that live in countries with privacy laws that are just as secure? Unless you're really good about keeping your contacts secure as well, all it means is that they have to issue more subpoenas.
Except the data retention directive requires providers to store email for at least 6 months.. (minimum in directive, actual period can be longer in individual countries)
Havenco closed in 2008. No sealand hosting now.
... at least in germany and most european countries.
If you want to read them you need a search warrant.
angel'o'sphere
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
legally private, as opposed to "secure"
I'm not sure this term has any meaning when applied to information that is instantly, cheaply and undetectably duplicated, especially if this duplication is the whole fucking point. How many servers did that mail pass through while it got to the recipient?
What we really need is to define encryption as a basic human right.
There are third party services (like messagelabs offered by Symantec) that provide email scanning and archival. This puts an interesting kink into the model, because now the path includes more than just other email hosts. These services can have their own retention and privacy policies, and you, as merely one endpoint in a communication process, may have no idea that such a third party is being used.
I don't know which country has the best protection for users of online services now, but Iceland most certainly will be a contender when the IMMI legislation has been passed as per the Parliamentary Resolution passed on June 16. last year. Check it out: http://immi.is/
Run an SMTP/POP3 server in a VM that loads from an encrypted partition, use a dynamic DNS service so that you can be found. Or rent a COLO in a third world country, etc, And send everything/receive everything as an encrypted attachment. Use steganography to distribute embedded keys in mainstream porn images on annoying pop-up web-page ads.
Live in a skid-row hotel room, move often, use prepaid cell phones, don't use snail-mail, if you have a beard, shave, if you don't grow one, large dark glasses, broad-brimmed hat (lined with tinfoil) look behind you, AAAHHH!!!
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
China has arguably the best privacy laws. In China the state really will go the extra mile to protect the privacy of all government agencies that have access to your emails.