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."
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!
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."
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.
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.
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/