Slashdot Mirror
Law Professor: Tech Companies Are Our Best Hope At Resisting Surveillance
An anonymous reader writes: Fusion has an op-ed where Ryan Calo, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Washington, argues Google, Apple, and Microsoft pushing back against government surveillance may be our only real hope for privacy. He writes: "Both Google and Yahoo have announced that they are working on end-to-end encryption in email. Facebook established its service on a Tor hidden services site, so that users can access the social network without being monitored by those with access to network traffic. Outside of product design, Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft have sent their formidable legal teams to court to block or narrow requests for user information. Encryption tools have traditionally been unwieldy and difficult to use; massive companies turning their attention to better and simpler design, and use by default, could be a game changer. Privacy will no longer be accessible only to tech-savvy users, and it will mean that those who do use encryption will no longer stick out like sore thumbs, their rare use of hard-to-use tools making them a target."
Assuming the file is below whatever the attachment size limit for Hotmail, try renaming it to a JPEG or some other picture format file extension.
Therein lies the rub. The laws regarding the sanctity of the mail were written prior to the wholesale auction of the government, and the entire distribution chain is controlled to where any shenanigans by either the government or private entity is obvious. I've even had mail carriers inform me of my right to refuse a package when there were signs of tampering or something else seemed amiss, thereby limiting my legal liability for the contents. Try getting that from a private business without the NSA breathing down your throat.
The truly paranoid still make regular use of the mail as the manpower required to monitor it is prohibitive, and you are pitting government agency against government agency in maintaining its fidelity.
Had this problem when I was in the military. Charged the extension to .txt or .ppt to get around it.