Posted on 05/26/2016 5:06:55 AM PDT by Cyberman
Better watch what you put in email.
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday approved a bill that would make it easier for the government to read what you're writing online....
The bill is the latest move by the federal government to shore up its powers when it comes to surveilling citizens. The government has been battling Apple and other tech companies for more access to data stored on devices. Law enforcement argues it can't fight crimes unless it has access to information on mobile gadgets. Technology companies and rights groups argue that features like strong encryption, which scrambles data so it can be read only by the intended recipient, are needed to keep people safe and protect privacy.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Tuesday in a joint statement that the 2017 Intelligence Authorization Act makes it easier for the government to keep Americans safe....
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
Yup the wusses in congress are at it again
Seriously. Where are we gonna come up with 100 Trumps to run for the Senate?
This.
Since it is almost impossible to go through a day without breaking at least one law, the ability to search your past with a fine-toothed comb is a really powerful tool of oppression.
My emails consist of a couple a month to a FRiend. They’d do better just monitoring my FR posts. As if they haven’t been for years. They used to be VERY obvious about it and I’d send them (((hugs))). Guess they’ve upgraded their spyware because they don’t freeze my screen these days. Still, howdy to the suit behind the screen!
............Yep, saw that. Still around. Niiiice.
This depends upon how much security you want. Are you concerned about the collection of metadata? i.e., who you are talking to and when? If so, you're going to need things like anonymous remailers. If you just want to encrypt the contents of your mail, you need to look for a mail client that has support for PGP/GPG. I use thunderbird with the enigmail plugin, that does a great job of making encryption/decryption/signatures pretty seamless. The big problem is getting other people to be able to handle encrypted mail.
I've been singing the virtues of encrypted mail for a long time now. Until people actually start valuing their privacy, and more email clients integrate standards-based encryption, it's a losing battle. One big problem is that the government has been putting pressure on companies for a =long= time to make sure encrypted mail remains a niche thing. If MS-Outlook (ugh) supported PGP, you'd find people a lot more accepting of it. You won't see that from Microsoft though, until they have absolutely no choice about the matter.
If you want secure mail you cannot use web-based mail like gmail. That's because decryption has to take place locally. You must control your private key, or you have no security. I could see how it might work in browser-based email, but it would be harder to implement correctly (and securely) than a standalone email client, because your browser would have to have access to your private key. Given the vulnerabilities that have come to light with browsers in general, and javascript in particular, (which would be a likely method for implementation), I just don't believe it would ultimately be workable.
Public-key cryptography is the best tool to use for encrypted email because you don't have to have previously shared a password to decrypt the message, but it's not all that is available. PGP/GPG also does symmetric algorithms like 3des and AES. Again, the big problem with using more 'conventional protocols, is that the message is encrypted with a passphrase, and you need to be able to communicate that passphrase to the recipient securely. There are some pretty straightforward ways of creating passwords algorithmically, but such methods rely emphatically on secrecy of the method you use. Security by obscurity is not something to bet your life on.
Bottom line, look for email clients with PGP or GPG integration as your best bet.
I’m unclear how ProtonMail would actually have any security. In order for it to work as it looks like on their website, they would have to have the key to decrypt your mail on their servers.
lol
you’re right.
i think anything i mentioned from my younger days in an email is past the statute of limitations in NY...
Virtually all providers of “free” email like Google mine all of your content to aid in targeting advertising.
Why not let Uncle Sam peruse it to? /s
dear null,
re: voynich.
As a matter of fact, I was reading some posts and watching some videos about it on 05/21/2016. All of them stated, that as I read and viewed them, that the manuscript has yet to be decoded.
Having some background in such things, i did notice that some of the language of the document was what is known by some as “Theban” and “Angelic”. I would have to dedicate some time, and not worry what you might respond with, to delve deeper into the document, for a better description.
Ah! I’ve read (don’t remember where *sigh*) that it was an utter fake. Nonsense symbols and letters were assembled using a template that looked like a eight pointed asterisk cut out that was placed over root words and rotated to select pre and suffixes.
This mimicked the density distribution of phonemes in natural languages, but was totally devoid of actual content.
Maybe it was a Scientific American article?
Unless yer initials are HRC.
They already have that. All Barney has to do is utter three words. "I smelled merrywanna", and he's legally covered to throw grenades in your window, and shoot you in your bed.
Of course, instead of all this invasive crap, we could stop Islamic immigration and recognize Islam as the hostile political ideology that it is rather than just another religion, so we can take steps to shrink or eliminate it in the US.
Oh well, the government can using my boring emails as a sleeping pill. :-)
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