Email users have less privacy

[Randomizer]

From today's Wall Street Journal comes this examination of the lack of email privacy. While most of the time the government needs a warrant, for older emails of 6 months or more they are considered abandoned property. No warrant is needed for the older stuff.

 

Time to go through and delete my old emails.

[Harehunter]

Don't forget to empty the recycle bin.

 

Does spam count?

[keira]

if you have something important to say just pgp-encrypt it

 

obligatory link to my public key

[Callie]

Not surprising in a post-9/11 government. The Obama administration has even assassinated a US citizen without due process.

[Aran]

^ Citation

 

 

 

My public key also.

 

Edit: Sylae, do you want to exchange signatures? Or does "sort of knowing people online" not meet your security standards?

[keira]

Edit: Sylae, do you want to exchange signatures? Or does "sort of knowing people online" not meet your security standards?

you can sign my key anytime

[Aran]

[Earth]

EU plans that websurfers needs to chat etc with their real name and face.

[keira]

Citation please

[Lilith]

 

true fact: i'm hosting a party in like 3 hours. here's hoping it's not a complete disaster

[Aran]

EU plans that websurfers needs to chat etc with their real name and face.

 

This sounded plausible because the EU is starting stuff like this all the time (see data retention laws, blocking of websites, ACTA, SOPA, etc.), but I could find no such thing currently that went beyond a few clueless politicians grandstanding for the media. Is there a specific law in the European parliament that you're talking about?

[The Mystic]

Regardless, I think it's a good thing I don't even use my real name most of the time.

[ĐªгŦĦ Єяŋϊε]

Regardless, I think it's a good thing I don't even use my real name most of the time.

you mean you'e not really The Mystic?!?

[Student of Trinity]

Of course he is. He uses his real name here, because he trusts us. Please don't bug him about it, though. He got enough of that in school. He's heard all the jokes about having an article for a first name before.

[Randomizer]

It could be worse. I knew a guy that had trouble convincing the school that his first name was only a letter.

[Lilith]

there was this dude when i was in high school who gave a speech to us and mentioned how in terms of privacy we should treat unencrypted email as equivalent to a conversation in a crowded restaurant. if someone specifically wants to listen in on you it's fairly easy for them to do so

 

i still think that's good advice

[keira]

That's true for anything sent via an unencrypted connection. Anyone with a packet sniffer can see that data with next to no effort.

 

It still amazes me encrypted connections aren't commonplace yet. people would be up in arms if hooligans could read your snail mail as easily as they could read your http cookies.

Edited November 29, 2012 by صيلي
part of the reason, i would imagine, is that http uses a system that requires owners to dole out money to get certs signed by CAs upstream. back in my day didn't need no stinking CAs, we had the web of trust and liked it that way.

[Aran]

Part of it is that there is only a small number of people who are aware of the issue, have the political clout to make others aware, and want to make others aware of it. Obviously, most authorities (eg. law enforcement, national intelligence) don't want encryption to become too ubiquitous lest criminals become too hard to catch. (Actual criminals, even, not just dissidents.)

 

Even people mindful of their own privacy might fear that ubiquitous encryption could lead to a government crack-down. But I think that's bad reasoning. Everyone who has secrets to protect would profit from ubiquitous encryption, because their use of it will stand out less. And the more people use it, the more political resistance a government would face when trying to stamp it out.

[ĐªгŦĦ Єяŋϊε]

 

Even people mindful of their own privacy might fear that ubiquitous encryption could lead to a government crack-down.

isn't that what the NSA is doing with their internet archive? recording all encrypted mail so in the future when computers are more powerful and can break current encryption methods they will just go an decrypt it from their archive.

[keira]

um, there's a lot of things nasa does to their employees that Are Not Good Things, i encourage you to google profusely.

[ĐªгŦĦ Єяŋϊε]

um, there's a lot of things nasa does to their employees that Are Not Good Things, i encourage you to google profusely.

NSA not NASA

[keira]

no actually its not. Edited December 5, 2012 by صيلي
wait a minute...crap

[ĐªгŦĦ Єяŋϊε]

uh huh it is too